Hurt trembled her mouth. “I’d hoped it would be mutually beneficial.”
Send her packing.
Send her packing.
I sat forward and asked, “How so?”
Her honeyed voice shifted to a plea. “You get to shame Jarek, and I have a place to stay.”
“A place to stay?” My brow cocked in disbelief.
“Yes. Let me stay here, with you.” Her fingers curled into her bag, her throat bobbing as she swallowed.
“You want to stay with me?”
Her tongue stroked out to wet her lips. “I can’t go back there, Logan.”
Ironic, considering she’d chosen him over me. Considering that was the life she’d wanted.
The truth that I would never be good enough.
Old rage I’d carried for too many years pushed me to standing, and I stalked around to the front of the desk.
The air shivered as I moved to stand in front of her.
She sat back like she could protect herself from the proximity while I rested on the edge of the desk.
Attraction blazed.
A connection neither of us had been able to resist.
Something I’d felt once in my life and thought I’d never experience again.
And there it was, sparked back to life by this girl who was my one true threat.
Her breaths were hollow, and her eyes whispered over me like I was the one thing she’d been missing.
My dick hardened at the sight.
A haze of lust permeated the room.
Like a fool, I reached out and took her by the chin, my thumb tracing that mouth that could drive a decent man to depravity.
I wasn’t exactly a decent man.
“You should go home, Aster. It’s where you belong.” It was laced with a warning.
“I never belonged there. You know that.” Her words were soft snares.
Pain banged through my being. “Don’t fucking lie to me.”
Her eyes dropped closed, and her chest heaved as she looked away for a moment before she looked back at me. “I need a place to stay, Logan. I can’t go back there. I can’t.”
Rage burned through my spirit. For her. At the thought of what put this desperation on her face.
I couldn’t trust it.
I’d seen it before.