Page 74 of The Troublemaker

Her stomach went tight. “I don’t think you should come over.”

“Why?” he asked, his voice ragged.

He had to know why. He had to know why he shouldn’t come over. It was... It was hardly ambiguous at this point.

“Are you afraid that you’re going to lose control? Because I would never do anything that you didn’t want to do. So if something was going to happen...”

“I don’t know what’s going on,” she said, her voice practically a whisper. “I don’t know what I would do, Lachlan. I really like to know exactly who I am, and what I want, and what I’m going to do. Right now, I don’t.”

“I want to come talk to you. I messed that up. I messed up really bad, and I’m sorry.”

“Why do you want to talk to me?”

“I want to see you in person.” He paused for a moment. “I might kiss you again.”

“You shouldn’t kiss me.”

“If you don’t want me to, say the word and I won’t do it.”

It wasn’t that simple, though, and she knew it now. She bet he did, too.

“You can come over. But only for a little bit.”

“I’ll be there in a minute.”

She rushed to get ready, throwing on clothing as quickly as she possibly could and resigning herself to the fact that she was just going to look like a drowned rat still, because she didn’t have time to blow-dry her hair.

What was he thinking? What did he want? He hadn’t wanted to tell her over the phone, and she couldn’t get a read on why.

There was a heavy knock on the door only a moment later, and she swallowed hard. “Come in.”

“It’s locked.”

“You know where the hide-a-key is,” she said, grumbling. But she went to the door and unlocked it, opened it.

The impact of him took her breath away.

This was what she had been worried about. This very thing. Because she couldn’t... She couldn’t see him the way that she had before. She couldn’t put the blinders back on.

It was simply terrifying. Well, maybeterrifyingwas overstating it. But then, maybe not.

He stepped into the living room and he had been here any number of times. Countless times. She had watched him step into this room as a broken, bleeding teenager, a wiry young man, a muscular man in his thirties. But this felt different. Singular. It felt like something unprecedented. It was scary. Because they should know each other too well for things to be unprecedented, except now she knew they didn’t.

After that kiss, she knew they didn’t.

“So what are you...”

And suddenly, she found herself being pulled into his arms. Her heart gave one wild thump before he lowered his head and pressed his mouth to hers. Before he started to kiss her again, this time deeper, hungrier than before.

She put her hand on his chest, because she intended to push him away. But then she just didn’t. Then she found her fingers curling around the fabric of his shirt. Found herself holding her body to his.

She found herself doing everything she said she wouldn’t.

He wrapped his arms around her, not simply holding her chin this time, but enveloping her in the muscular warmth of his frame.

He was so much bigger than she was. Stronger. He made her feel fragile. All of this did.

Because this wasn’t like anything she had ever experienced, and when he parted her lips and took the kiss deeper, impossibly so, she found herself nearly melting into a puddle.

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