Don't Let Me Go
Page 19
“So what?”
His mouth twisted.
Nadine lifted her legs and clamped them around his waist, forcing his hips against the juncture of her body. The solid, telling ridge of his erection sent shivers through her. He still wanted her. He couldn’t hide it.
“So what?’ she asked again, softer. “Every couple promises they’ll make their lover into something great. It doesn’t mean we can’t do it alone, just that we don’t have to.” Her jaw thrust out. “How do you think I feel when you tell me you don’t need me for anything?”
His hips jerked. He sealed his teeth around whatever comment he was going to make, but she knew exactly what he was thinking.
She felt damn good right now, and he knew it.
Nadine always got what she wanted, and what she wanted was Lucas Bourdin. It was about time everyone else clued in.
She straightened her neck, ignoring the strain it put on her back and shoulders, and pressed her lips to his.
He stiffened.
A short rebellion. He groaned against her mouth, let go of her wrists to plunge his fingers into her hair, cradle her head and hold her still as he thrust his tongue between her lips. He dove into her kiss like a man too long denied everything he wanted, and Nadine met him moment for moment, tongue rubbing against his, breath catching.
And it wasn’t enough.
She demanded more than a kiss. Wanted more than just hunger.
Grabbing his hair, she pulled his head back, forced her mouth away to gasp, “I want to be needed, Lucas.” The keys clinked and jingled. “Not just like this,” she added when his eyes banked, “but in your life. I want to know I have a place beside you. That I bring something to your life besides hot sex.”
“Oh, Jesus.” He grabbed her hair again, but this time, he only held the keys still. “You don’t want much.”
“Wrong,” she snapped, and caught the front of his shirt in one fist. “I want everything. I want you, and I want my parents to deal with that. I want my own future, and damn it, Lucas, you need to be in it.”
“But your parents—”
“It’s not about them.” She tugged on his collar when his mouth twisted. “Shut up. Listen to me. I love them, but I’ve got zero interest in living with them forever.” Please, she thought as he stared at her in silence. Please, get this. Get me.
If he didn’t, then she really would lose everything.
The fingers in his shirt gentled. Her fingertips ghosted across the line of his clavicle.
His pulse leapt.
“I have loved you since I was thirteen years old,” she said huskily. Her finger eased over the hollow of his throat. “I used to keep your picture in my biology book.”
A laugh strangled in his chest. He closed his eyes, but as color flooded his cheeks, Nadine dared to hope. A smile twitching her lips, she admitted, “I was really good at biology. I thought it’d rub off. Turns out,” she added ruefully, “only thing I ever managed to rub off was—”
He covered her mouth with his palm, a guttural sound replacing his laugh with something hotter. Rougher.
Oh, she liked that. Wanted more.
But she couldn’t be sure he got it. She didn’t know how to read so much emotion on the man who’d always been a tough sell—until he eased his hand from her mouth, tucked two fingers under her chin and said softly, “I would have no life without you.”
Yeah. That did it.
Her breath shook as she gasped out a laugh, but he wasn’t done.
Holding her in place, he bent to flick her lower lip with his tongue. “I’m sorry.” A kiss so gentle, it stole the very last shred of her battered heart. “I was an asshole, and I know it. I should never have accused you of trying to change me. Christ, Woody, you’ve been changing me for years.” He drew back, grip gentle around the entangled keys. “I sold my car because I can make another. I know I can do it because you’ve been there since the moment my parents skipped. I wouldn’t be half the man I was without you, but…” He laughed helplessly. “I don’t know. I can’t make another you.”
His eyes gleamed in tawny hunger, in restless, helpless frustration—everything she knew so well.
He got it.
Finally, he got her.
“What about your…” She hesitated. “Job?”
A muscle ticked under his eye. He clenched his teeth, but just as fast, took a deep breath and let it out. “Johnny’s family took me in. I won’t apologize for that. I can’t.”
Nadine waited, unaware she was holding her own breath until her lungs cramped. She inhaled shallowly.
“But,” he continued, searching her eyes, her face, “I quit. I don’t know if it’ll ever come back to bite me, but I quit. I didn’t tell you because—”
“Because you wanted to protect me?”
“And because I didn’t want you to look at me like some criminal,” he confessed roughly. “But I am. I’ve always been—God, I’m an idiot.”
She laughed. “Yeah. But not because— I mean, it wasn’t—” Ugh, she couldn’t handle this. She kissed him, hard and fast, but before his lips could soften against hers, his tongue could make her forget what she needed to say, she leaned back and let it all out on a rush. “You had no faith in me, Lucas. You didn’t tell me about the loan shark stuff, you didn’t tell me about the fact my parents bribed yours.”
He winced. “Don’t—”
“But then,” she added over him, desperate to make him understand, “I know why. I’m not stupid, Lucas, I can totally see myself lecturing you forever, so…” She huffed a little sigh. “I get it. I do.”
“We’re a pair, aren’t we?”
Her heart fluttered. “Are we?” she asked carefully. Her entire world narrowed to one answer—one word. Yes. Would he say it?
Could he?
Lucas’s large hand spanned her throat, a gentle curve that placed his thumb at her rapid pulse.
“Nadine Sherwood,” he said, precariously balanced between level and desperate, “will you be my best friend again?”
It wasn’t a yes.
But that wasn’t a no, either.
She couldn’t help it. “No way,” she scoffed.
Panic flickered in his face. Raw, desperate. She was so mean.
She couldn’t do that to him. Relenting, her lips twitching, she added, “But I’ll totally be your girlfriend.”
That panic eased to a slow, knowing smile. The dimples at his cheeks winked. “I think…” He ran a thumb under her eye, wiping away her tears—and what was left of her eyeliner. “I think I can work with that.”
“Good.” Nadine gave him a hard stare. “You don’t want a trophy wife, right?”
He flinched. “God, no.”
“You don’t want me for my money?” When he bared his teeth at her, she grinned. “Good, ‘cause I currently don’t have any and I suck at my job.”
“I don’t care,” he snarled, and kissed her again. “But when you make up with your family, I’ll… deal.”
He was adorable. On every level. “Even if they hate you?”
“Even if they hate me.”
“They won’t,” she said firmly. “Not for long. Lucas?”
“Mm?”
“Is it too early to ask for boyfriend favors?”
“Ask me for anything.”
She tipped her head. “Can you get these freaking keys out of my hair?”
When Lucas laughed, it warmed the very last part of her still shaking in terror. He eased her against him so he could reach the back of her head, his heartbeat solid and steady where her ear pressed against his chest. Gently, tenderly, he worked the keys out of her hair, and if Nadine caught him inhaling her fragrance with slow, deep breaths, she didn’t comment.
She’d started wearing lilies for him.
She’d keep on wearing them for as long as he wanted. For the first time, since the first day she realized she loved the boy who’d friend-zoned her, Nadine was eager to see what the future held. Whatever was comin
g, she could handle it as long as her best friends were right there with her.
That was the perfect kind of happily ever after, right?
“I love you,” he whispered into her hair.
“Yeah.” Her heart threatened to burst with happiness as she pressed her lips to the warm skin of his neck. “I really am that easy.”
Thank you!
I hope you enjoyed Don't Let Me Go. Thank you for reading!
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This is the second book in the Right Side of Wrong series. The other books in the series are Can’t Buy Me Love and Won’t Give You Up (out February 2015). I hope you enjoy returning to Sulla Valley!
Next in Won’t Give You Up, the final book in the criminally sexy Right Side of Wrong series, heiress and girl-on-the-edge Kira Dawson is utterly fed up with her family’s internal social war. What she needs is a big way to send a bigger message—and Jack Harris is the perfect con-man for the job.
The first chapter will be released at www.rindaniels.com soon!
Next: Won't Give You Up
available February 2015
An heiress determined to come out on top…
Kira Dawson has two rules for her hired boyfriend: make it look real, and no sex. This Valentine’s Day, she’s breaking free of her family’s expectations no matter what it takes—and Jack Harris is exactly the kind of man who can send her overbearing relatives a wake-up call they won’t ever forget.
A con artist who refuses to give up the game…
Jack Harris inherited a silver tongue and a love of easy money, which means he’s more than willing to take Kira and her family for everything they’re worth. Only one problem: he never expected to like the rebellious socialite. Suddenly, the payday she represents might not be enough to convince him to take the money and run.
All bets are off when love is on the line.
She may have set the boundaries, but Jack’s expert acting is all too perfect a con. As everyone else falls for their fake romance, Kira struggles to remember the rules of the game they’re playing—and they don’t include falling for the wrong person at the perfect time.
Other Books by Rin Daniels
Right Side of Wrong
Can’t Buy Me Love
Don’t Let Me Go
Won’t Give You Up
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Rin Daniels: Don't Let Me Go
Copyright © 2014 Rin Daniels
Edition: 1.0
All rights reserved. Where such permission is sufficient, the author grants the right to strip any DRM which may be applied to this work.