Page 25 of Glorious Sinner

Stephanie had been quiet all dinner, on edge, constantly looking around. When she wasn’t doing that, she was deep in her own head. Today, she’d had a setback, and I fucking hated it. I hated that she was suffering and I didn’t know how to help her.

We were on our way home after dinner, and she was sitting beside me, staring out the window.

“I’m sorry,” I said into the silence. “This was a mistake.”

Her chin jerked around, her gaze shooting to me. “A mistake?” she whispered.

“I shouldn’t have suggested we go out for dinner after last night, the texts…I fucked up…”

Her gaze slid away from me, a breath rushing from between her trembling lips.

Jesus, had she thought…

She thought I meant having her with me was a mistake.

Fuck keeping my distance. “Come here, Angel,” I said, giving her the choice to refuse but hoping like fuck that she didn’t.

There was no hesitation. She slid along the seat, coming right to me like she’d been waiting for me to say those exact words. She pressed in under my arm, tucking herself in close, and I felt all the tension I’d seen in her shoulders, in her rigid spine, leave her body. Christ, she let me take her weight, let me hold her up.

I had to bite back my smile at the win, but it was hard, because this felt good. Really fucking good. “I’ve got you,” I said. “For as long as you need, and even when you don’t.”

I felt her suck in a breath, but she nodded, and fuck me, that felt good as well. I moved my fingers against her bare arm, nothing demanding, nothing that could make her feel uncomfortable, or at least I fucking hoped not. I knew I’d gotten it right when she sighed and relaxed more.

I kept that up, doing my best to keep my damn breathing even and my dick under control. Even though I knew she was a long way from taking it there, and I was okay with that, it didn’t mean my dick had gotten the memo. I wanted her beyond all reason. I wanted her in a way I’d never wanted another woman in my life, and there was no hiding that.

Finally, I slid my fingers into all that gorgeous fucking red hair, leaned in, and pressed my lips to her temple. “Okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

Steph was warm and curvy and soft, and as much as I wanted to do the right thing tonight, after seeing the lust in her eyes in my office, then with her fingers down her panties, touching her pussy, and what happened next, the mix of rage and need I was feeling was near to boiling point. I wanted Ryan off the street. I wanted the threat to Stephanie eliminated.

I just wanted her.

Which meant I needed to get the fuck away from her for a few hours and get my shit together.

So when we walked inside the house a short time later, I pressed a kiss to her wrist and turned her toward the stairs. “I need to get some work done. Why don’t you head up to bed?”

There was reluctance in her green eyes while they lingered on me, and it took everything in me not to yank her closer and take her mouth, fucking claiming it.

Finally, she nodded. “Right…I’ll see you in the morning, then?”

I dipped my chin.

She started to head up, but stopped, body frozen for one beat, two, then she turned and came back to me.

Her head tilted back and she looked up at me. “I want to…I want to thank you, for everything,” she said.

Before I got the chance to remind her that I didn’t need her thanks, she got up onto her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to my jaw, taking me by surprise. I dipped my chin as her fingers curled in my jacket, pulling me closer as she came at me again, this time her lips managing to graze the corner of my mouth. It was a little awkward, a whole lot innocent, and so fucking sweet my gut ached.

She started to pull away and I stopped her, couldn’t fucking let her go without knowing what her mouth felt like pressed against mine. So I hovered there, giving her the opportunity to stop it if she wanted to, to move back, and when she didn’t I closed the small gap, pressing a soft kiss to her warm, soft as hell lips. Once. Twice.

She made a little moaning sound that hit me in the gut and made my already hard cock impossibly harder.

I quickly set her back before I took things too far, before I lost my damn head. “Good night, Steph.”

She blushed and that just sent my need higher. “Night.” Then she turned and rushed up the stairs.

I watched her until she disappeared from view then strode to my office, flung off my jacket, rolled up my sleeves, and paced to the bookshelf on the other side of the room.