Behind the Curtain - Page 65

She swallowed thickly and nodded. A tiny smile flickered across her lips. “Thanks.”

“I only say it because it’s true.”

Her smile widened. He nipped at her lips. He couldn’t help it. Her smile after seeing her fear was like watching the dawn breaking after a stormy night.

“Not just for that. Thank you for dropping everything and coming so quickly. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

“Nothing at all. I told you before I’d come, anytime you wanted to see me.”

“It’s all I could think about, once I saw Mamma Sophia and heard she was going to be okay.”

“What’s that?”

“Seeing you,” she whispered. “Having you hold me.”

There was something about the way she was looking up at him that made his head automatically dip in preparation to kiss her. Sink into her. He felt his body harden at the mere flashing, vivid thought. Now that he knew what it was like to be inside her, it was like he’d been programmed—hardwired somehow—with a mandate to get back there. He stepped back, feeling extremely guilty about his uncontrollable reaction in this situation. Laila needed his support right now, not for him to jump her while she was vulnerable.

“Here, let’s sit down,” he suggested, waving over at the big rock.

They sat side by side. She curled into him, her cheek against his ribs, her arms encircling his waist. He pulled her tight against him. The singular scent of her hair and the feeling of her soft, curving body against his stroking hand didn’t help much in his nonselfish course of action.

“What were you doing?” she murmured quietly, her mouth near his chest. “When I texted?”

He thought of finding his cell phone, Eric’s note and the key to the beach house. A vivid imagined picture popped into his head of Eric walking into his dad’s office in Chicago, that smug smile Asher hated plastered on his face. He tamped down a flare of fury and opened his hand at the back of her head.

“Nothing. Just eating breakfast with the guys,” he said, stroking her hair.

She placed a hand on his abdomen. He stilled beneath her touch, his nerves flickering in awareness.

“I guess Rudy and Jimmy knew. About me staying with you last night,” he heard her say.

“They didn’t say anything about it. They’re not like that.”

“They aren’t?”

He resumed stroking her hair. Her hand caressed his stomach ever so slightly, but his brain charted every minuscule shift.

“Well, Jimmy isn’t. Rudy can be. In other situations, maybe. But he wouldn’t be. Not about you,” he tried to explain, finding it difficult to focus with her touching him.

“Not about me?” she asked, lifting her chin and meeting his stare.

“Yeah. He knows better by now.” He jerked his gaze off her full, pink mouth when he noticed her eyebrows arch in a query. “He knows better than to say anything crude about you in front of me.”

A smile curved her mouth. Much to his horror, he felt himself go rock hard at the sight. His cock tingled and tightened.

“Because he knows you’d defend my honor?” she asked him.

He shrugged uneasily. She laughed and shook her head, looking a little sad.

“What’s wrong?” he wondered.

“After last night, I haven’t got much left.”

“Got much left of what?” he asked, confused.

“Honor.”

He stiffened. He put his hand on her chin, lifting her face to his. “You don’t really believe that, do you?” he demanded. “I honor you more now than I ever have.”

Tags: Beth Kery Erotic
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