Locke moves to the side to accommodate me, and I grab a scrub brush and hand it up to him without comment. I think I’m fine, I think I’m going to escape unscathed, but the return trip to my feet has it in for me. I start to lose my balance, and I grab for his arm to steady myself. And then I find myself holding onto him, breaking every rule.
When you want someone the way I want Lachlan Mills, you don’t touch. You never, ever touch.
But here we are.
Locke steadies me by the waist, and the heat of his palms through my soft sweater burns away all my senses. “It’s okay, Greer. I’ve got you.”
“Thanks.” I snatch my hand back, my cheeks scorching, and Locke drops his hands. We are so deliberately not touching that the space between us hurts.
I take a half a step back, but Locke catches me lightly by the wrist and stops me before I get too far. “You’ve got tahini on your face.”
I swipe at my left cheek, and he shakes his head with a slight smile. He releases my wrist and reaches toward me to sweep a strand of hair behind my ear. Then, with trembling fingers, he strokes a thumb over my cheek and my. heart. stops.
The room goes still—we go so quiet and still—that it feels like we’re in the eye of a hurricane. The world might be blasting apart outside but the only thing I’m aware of is me and Locke and this intimate touch that’s making every nerve in my body light up. This touch that’s unwinding me, that’s making me shake as I lean into his palm and breathe in his masculine scent.
The air between us crackles with heat, and electric energy pulses through my veins as Locke holds my face in his hands. My head spins and my knees threaten to buckle again, but I can’t make myself move away.
“Greer, I…”
There’s anguish in Locke’s tone, like he’s been wrestling with himself for ages and he’s finally giving in.
I want to reassure him, to give him something solid, so I reach up a hand to cover his wrist. We stand there, staring into each other’s eyes, me holding him holding me. I’m pretty sure the whole universe lives inside Locke’s eyes, constellations and galaxies swirling in those amber depths, reminding me that we are all made of the same atoms and ions. We’re all connected.
Locke tilts my chin in his hands, and his gaze locks on mine, intense and wanting and so focused that heat pools between my legs. We’ve never done this—never touched so intimately, laid our feelings out so bare. I’m intensely aware of each of his fingers, the pad of his thumb at the edge of my jaw, and my heart fucking aches.
“Locke,” I whisper. It takes everything in me to say the next word. “Wait.” He is the single most important person in my life right now, and I absolutely cannot have this be a kiss and run. It would destroy me. I’d rather never have a taste than to get a glimpse of what this could be and have it yanked away.
The air goes thick and hot, and Locke’s eyes blaze on my face. “What are you afraid of, Greer?” he challenges.
I swallow hard and drop my gaze. “Nothing.”
He shakes his head and grips my chin gently, so I’m forced to look him in the eye. “Bullshit.”
His rebuttal is so direct and shocking that I gape at him. “Excuse me?”
“What are you so scared of?” he repeats.
I can feel tears prick the corner of my eyes, and my heart bleats like a lamb. “I can’t lose you,” I admit. My whole body aches, wired so tight I could crack.
“Lose you?” Locke’s eyes crinkle with amusement and warmth. “I’m not going anywhere, babe.”
“Babe.” Doesn’t he know what that does to me? How damn confusing it makes everything? “There’s that word again.”
“I’m fond of it,” he smirks.
I snort in exasperation. “Locke—” I start to protest.
“How about I start by getting rid of that tahini?” he asks.
God, I’d forgotten all about it.
“Right.” I bite my lower lip. “Tahini. That’s fine.”
Locke sucks in a breath, and before I realize what’s happening, he lowers his face to mine. I’m so shocked that I don’t move, don’t even breathe.
I’m a rabbit, frozen in front of a wolf, but it’s lust hammering my ribs instead of fear. I relish the delicious anticipation as Locke comes closer, stepping forward until our chests press together and my heart bangs so loud I’m sure he can hear it. His lips brush my cheek, his tongue following hot and sensual on my skin.
He’s licking off the tahini. He’s just licking it off…
But then he nibbles his way down the slope of my cheek until our noses touch and his lips hover over mine.
“You taste so good,” he groans, the sound strained and almost painful, so raspy and thick with need.
“That’s just the tahini,” I mumble, and I feel his grin against my lips, and then I’m grinning too.
Locke pulls back a fraction of an inch to look me in the eyes, and then he smiles a pirate smile. First it steals my breath, then it steals my mind, and finally it steals my heart. I’m absolute putty in his arms, which makes me want to stage a feminist protest, but which also feels so blissfully good that I want to give in and let go. Now that we’re here, now that we’ve crossed all these lines, I can’t imagine ever going back.
“You have to tell me if you want me to stop right now.” Locke strokes a thumb over my cheek, so close we’re sharing air. “Because
