his gaze and it made her pulse pound in her neck.
“The world is a damned big place,” she said. “You could have been anyone…” She didn’t have to spell it out. He knew what she meant.
His eyes grew stormy. “But I wasn’t.”
She wasn’t able to take her eyes off him. He was so damned there, all hard muscle and confidence and it made her fingers itch to run along his strong jaw. Instead she clenched them at her side. Any other man in the entire world. That’s all he had to be.
Instead he was the single one that she needed to avoid. She really should go.
He reached out and ran his thumb over her bottom lip. Her lips parted on a gasp and his jaw hardened. Without the beard she could see every hard line of his face. His eyes had gone black and she could see the way his chest rose faster now.
“Fuck,” he growled. His hand slid back, curled around her neck and inch by torturous inch, he pulled her head closer. “This is the most epically fucked up thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“I should go,” she whispered against his lips. If he kissed her, every last argument to leave would fly out the window.
Their fathers were enemies. Like, enemies to where either of them would truly like to see the other dead and buried.
This couldn't happen, she and Ethan were an impossibility in every sense of the word.
The heat in his stare pinned her to the where she stood.
“Probably,” he murmured.
The barest of touch whispered over her lips, but it might as well have been a thousand lightning bolts striking at once. Heat ignited in her gut and a low moan crawled out of her throat.
“I…I couldn’t resist seeing you,” she whispered softly.
“Christ, you’re killing me here, Harper.” his other hand settled at her waist and his finger stroked the sliver of exposed skin above the waistband of her shorts.
She sucked in a breath. Once again he’d barely even touched her and she was ready to climb his body and wrap her legs around his waist.
“You have to be the practical one.” Harper looked up and was so close to him that she could see the barest sliver of color around his pupil. There was a wildness building just under the surface and she could feel it by the way his muscles tensed when he pressed closer. His fingers tightened on her neck and a thrill shot down her back.
He barked out a laugh. “You don’t know me very well if you think I’m going to be the practical one,” he said.
“Well I sure as hell won’t be,” she gasped. “I can’t even think straight.”
He slid his arm all the way around her waist and pulled her against him. The hard bulge of his cock pressed against her stomach. All she could think about was how much she wanted him again, circumstances be damned.
She wasn’t her father and Ethan wasn’t his.
Harper wrapped her arms around his neck and arched her chest against him.
Ethan buried his face in her neck and sank his teeth into the flesh just under her ear. A sting of pain made her gasp, but then he ran his tongue soothingly over the spot. Her nipples tightened and ached when she slowly moved from side to side. One of his legs pressed between hers and suddenly, the friction that she craved was right there. She rocked her hips, needing more.
“You’re playing with fire, Harper,” he growled in her ear. “I’m already wound tight as fuck from the race. In about three seconds, I’m going to have my way with you.”
Bright light danced in her vision. Holy hell, she was so close to orgasm and his dirty words were going to push her over the top. She groaned so loud that it echoed around them. His entire body hardened and he swore under his breath. Then, he stood a foot away, his hands on her shoulders.
His chest rose and fell as he gulped in huge breaths.
It took him a minute to lift his head, to look into her eyes. The want that radiated from them almost made her knees buckle. She reached out and ran her fingers down his chest. This time he groaned, but he caught her hand and held it still.
Harper could feel his heart slamming into his ribs.
“You have the most amazing fuck me eyes and it’s killing me,” he said. After gulping in another breath, he eased his hand off