Page 9 of Judge’s Redemption

“You're looking at me too.”

“I'm furious with you.”

“I can see that.”

She shoves both hands against my chest and I catch her wrists on instinct.

The contact turns the air between us combustible. Her palms are trapped over the hard beat of my heart, and her breathing changes as the anger in her eyes shifts into something just as dangerous. Time hasn't killed this. It's only made it meaner.

“Let go,” she says.

My grip loosens, but she doesn't pull away. “Tell me you don't want me.”

Her mouth parts. “You don't get to ask me that.”

“Because you can't say it?”

“I hate you right now.”

“Then hate me.”

I kiss her. There's nothing gentle about it.

Shay makes an angry sound against my mouth, and for half a second I expect her to shove me away. Instead, she grabs my cut and kisses me back hard enough to split my control wide open.

I turn us, putting her against the porch wall as her mouth opens beneath mine. Every memory of her tastes like nothing compared with the real thing. She bites my lower lip. I groan and grip her hips, dragging her against me so she can feel exactly what she still does to me.

Her body arches and I kiss her harder, swallowing the sound she makes as my hand slides beneath the loose edge of her shirt. Warm skin meets my palm. My fingers spread over her waist, remembering how she used to fit beneath my hands and discovering every way she's changed.

“Fuck, Shay.”

She tangles one hand in my hair and pulls, anger in every stroke of her tongue against mine. This isn't reconciliation. It's a fight with our mouths. My lips move down her throat. She trembles when I find the place beneath her ear, and the familiar reaction nearly destroys what's left of my control.

“I never stopped wanting you,” I say against her skin.

“Shut up.” She says breathlessly.

“Every fucking day.”

She pulls my mouth back to hers. My hand moves higher beneath her shirt. My thumb brushes the underside of her breast, and she gasps, her hips pressing into the thick length of me.

Then she freezes and I stop.

Her eyes open, dazed for a second before anger and reality return.

“No.”

I remove my hand and step back, though it takes everything I have.

Shay pulls her shirt down with shaking fingers. “That can't happen.”

“It just did.”

“It doesn't mean I forgive you.”

“I didn't think it did.”

“It doesn't mean we're getting back together.”