Page 12 of The Sweetest Obsession

Definitely notButterfly.

And I need to leave that bratty ego in the past, along with everything else. At least he’s just helping this time instead of doing a controlled demolition on my heart.

“Thank you, Grant.” I force a smile.

There’s something so strange about the way he’s looking at me.

I guess some things never change.

I never could tell what he’s really thinking, what he’s about to say, if he bothers to say anything at all.

When I was younger and hadn’t had the hopeless romantic knocked out of me yet, his silence always seemed so mysterious, this cryptic harshness begging for a gentle touch.

Now, it’s just frustrating.

Not knowing what to say while he stays silent.

But my heart climbs up my throat as he steps closer.

The space between us vanishes.

It’s like there’s an invisible red thread stretching from me to him, and instead of growing more slack as he draws near, it just pulls tighter, winding me up in knots.

He stops in front of me, looking down at me with shadows for eyes glowing beneath the brim of his hat.

Right before he shrugs his powerful shoulders, slides out of his jacket, and—thrusts it at me?

What?

I blink at the jacket dumbly.

What’s happening doesn’t register until it does.

Oh.

Oh, crap.

He... he noticed I was shivering and underdressed.

That, too, is totally Grant.

The mute giant who won’t say a word when he’s not snarling at someone, but when something needs doing, he notices, all right.

Like jerry-rigging my car.

Like keeping me warm.

I take the jacket hesitantly with my heart coming undone.

For a frenzied second, my fingers brush his.

It’s a bitter sort of wonderful, the sizzle of his skin against mine. I wish he wasn’t wired into my blood like he’s a missing part of me, awakening dormant feelings I thought I’d stamped out forever.

Of course, there’s no reaction from him.

None.

But now I’m shivering with more than the cold as I slide his jacket around my shoulders and slip my arms into the oversized sleeves. I draw it close until I’m enveloped in his lingering body heat and that dizzying woodsmoke scent.

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