Page 375 of Bad Prince
I lean forward, forearms braced on the table, eyes locked on hers.
“You think we could ever do slow, Stells? That’s delusional. But I won’t be that guy who played with another girl’s heart and forgets it like nothing— when the one I always wanted decides it’s her turn.”
For a second neither of us moves.
Her lips part.
And all I can think about is dragging my thumb across that bottom lip, then my mouth after it. What it would take to make her gasp. To make her forget the controlled, careful version of herself and melt against me like I’ve imagined in the dark more nights than I can count.
My voice comes out rough.
“You think I don’t see you and?—”
I stop.
Too late.
Her eyes flare.
“See me and what?” she asks.
Everything in me tightens.
Want.
Memory.
Frustration.
Need.
The sick, disciplined instinct to keep denying us both because I don’t trust what happens when I finally stop.
I sit back hard, jaw flexing.
“That’s the problem.”
A beat passes.
Then another.
She studies me like she’s trying to decide whether to push or show mercy.
Stella has never been generous with mercy.
Still, when she speaks, her voice is quieter.
“You walking away doesn’t mean it went away.”
I laugh once, without humor.
“I’m aware.”
Her gaze drops briefly to my clenched hand around the coffee cup, then rises again.
There’s heat in her expression now too.
No use pretending otherwise.
