ChapterFour
Saffron
Those two inchesbetween us were equal parts a chasm and a magnet we fought against. Or at least I fought against it. He kept his word and let me touch him without touching me.
Nervous, I forced my hand to stay on the center of his chest, but then his voice washed over me. That low mellow tone felt like Spanish coffee on a cold day and was hard to ignore as he whispered, “Eyes on me, gorgeous.”
I was lost. Honest to God. He might as well have taken what was left of my panties and shredded them because, dear God, I was desperate for him to touch me.
His gaze searched mine. And then he gave me that lopsided smile again. "If you want me to touch you, you're going to have to ask."
I blinked up in surprise. "What do you mean?"
"You keep looking at me like you're waiting for me to do something, but I’m not that arsehole you were dancing with earlier. So if you want me to touch you, you are going to have to ask me to."
His voice was a low rumble, and I could feel every word, every syllable, every fragment, deep down under my skin, breaking down on a molecular level to fuse with my cells.
God, that was a good voice.
It was a wake-up-in-the-morning-having-a-gorgeous-man-in-your-bed kind of voice, and he was talking to me like that in the middle of a crowded club where I had to lean in even closer just to hear him.
All I could do was nod and whisper, “You can touch me.” I wasn't sure what possessed me to say the words, what possessed me to give my permission. But then he hooked his thumbs in the belt loops of my jeans and pulled my hips in close to him, his gaze never leaving mine. I swallowed hard as the tingling started low in my belly. Holy Christ, I was aroused. The dull, insistent ache between my thighs refused to abate.
With his fingers molded slightly around my waist, just at the upper curve of my arse, he pulled me in even closer, sliding his leg between both of mine. He started to move us to the beat of music, and oh my God.
My pulse throbbed and my blood hummed. For the first time, I got it. I understood. I fully recognized why people made horrible decisions when it came to love and sex and who they should be with. It wasn't clinical. It wasn't something they did by choice. It was instinct. It was something they did because of a low tingle in their vajayjays. Women across time had made decisions based on this feeling. And I finally got it. I understood.
He leaned in close, his whisper just above my ear. "Is this okay?"
All I could do was nod. God, if only I had been blessed with the gift of saying the right thing at the right moment to seem sexy and interesting and compelling. If only I was Tabs. But no, I had nothing. I had no words to offer instead of staring at him, trying to find something to say.
He gave me a dimple popping grin. "You make me a little nervous too."
I cocked my head then. "What exactly are you reading as nervous?"
He lifted his brow then. "It's the furtive way you lookat me and the way you chew on the corner part of your lip. It's been driving me insane since I came over here. It's the way you're holding yourself so stiffly even though our bodies are pressed firmly against each other and you can no doubt feel how much I want you right now and you aren't backing away. So something tells me you like it. You are nervous and terrified, and I completely understand the feeling because you look like you are probably the kind of trouble I don't need."
"Wait, you're saying I look like trouble? Hardly. Clearly you've seen a mirror, right?"
He chuckled then. "I own one or two."
"Right. So, I also know someone like you doesn't really need someone like me. You could have any woman in here."
His brow quirked. "You could have any man, but you are dancing with me."
"Hardly. Something about me usually puts men off." He was still watching me like I was the only woman in the room.
“Who was the twat?”
"The wingman. My mate is over there somewhere making out with his friend, so he assumed he was getting lucky too. He was mistaken."
“Can’t fault his taste though.”
I could feel a hot flush snaking up my neck to my face. I figured that was probably a line, but I felt special, nonetheless. My phone buzzed in my back pocket, and he smiled down at me. "Saved by the bell. Why don't you get that."
I swallowed hard as I reached onto my back pocket, my fingertips grazing his. His fingers flexed on my flesh just a little bit, making me ache in places I didn't know I could ache. I glanced down at the phone and saw it was time check protocol. If I didn't call Gabe within the next thirty seconds, he was going to send a detail to my location. "I have to take this outside. It's too loud in here. Will you be here when I get back?"
I hated the sound of my voice, the hope. But if I didn't say something, I knew chances were he’d be dancing with someone who looked more like Tabs. And I definitely wanted to let him know I was coming back.