Page 67 of Duplicitous
My head tips back so I can meet his gaze. His eyes dip to my lips.
Sensual tension crackles between us. All he has to do is bend down and capture my mouth with his, and I would flower open for him…
“Don’t hesitate to contact me,” he says, the command almost a low growl.
He steps back, denying us both the kiss we crave.
I manage to straighten my shoulders. We’re in public. We’ve been standing too close to each other for too long already.
“I will,” I promise breathily as I get in the car.
I don’t know if I’m capable of staying away from him anymore.
18
KAROLINA
When I get home, I take a long bath to calm my frayed nerves. Unfortunately, the familiar comfort of reading my romance novel is a mistake. It’s a darkly sensual book about an obsessed masked man, but when I picture the fictional man beneath the mask, I keep seeing Rand’s perfectly chiseled features.
He’s worked his way into some instinctive part of my brain that craves the protection he offers. Especially after his intimate confessions about his difficult childhood as an orphan, he consumes my thoughts. I keep rereading the same paragraph because I can’t focus on the story.
Our connection is more than simple chemistry. IlikeRand. Possibly more than I’ve liked anyone since I fled my foster home. Even though I barely know him, I’ve shared more with him in the last few weeks than anyone in the last five years.
And to make things worse, he’s unbearably sexy with that cocky smirk and model-handsome face.
I groan and get out of the bath. As I dry off, I try to pretend that my nipples aren’t sensitive from thinking about him as a sexy masked man.
I can’t want my professor. Any relationship with him is impossible.
I’ve worked too hard to get to where I am. My stalker already threatens to shatter my safe new life in York.
I won’t be the cause of my own ruin.
I try to tell myself it’s too warm for my flannel pajamas as I slip on my silky pink nightgown, but that’s not the real reason.
My phone is in my hand. I find Bones’ contact information.
I need release. I need connection.
Even if it is just virtual.
It can’t be more than that, no matter what Bones expected to happen between us at the hunt. I won’t risk emotional entanglement.
I request a video call.
He doesn’t answer.
Fair enough. I didn’t really expect him to pick up after how our last conversation ended.
He might not accept me in his life at all.
I try a message. I’ve never apologized for what I said to him before I ran away and left him alone in the woods.
Karolina
I’m sorry for what I said. I didn’t really think you would find someone else after the hunt.
I bite my lower lip, struggling with how to word my next text. I owe him an explanation, even if I don’t want to get too emotionally intimate with him.
