His Lover to Protect - Katee Robert Page 0,8

a spot that made the whole pub go blurry. God, how was she supposed to pass a man like him up? It’s just sex. It’s not like I’m going to marry the man. The Old Alexis wouldn’t think to do this.

Which meant that was exactly what the New Alexis should do. She was supposed to be learning to take what she wanted. Right now, there was one need and one need alone dominating the forefront of her mind. She took a shuddering breath. “You. I want you.”

“This wasn’t supposed to happen.” Before she could process his words, he kept going, his hand sliding a few inches higher, until he pressed against the vee of her legs. “But fuck, I’m not a saint. I never have been.”

She didn’t know what he was talking about, but it sounded like he was trying to convince himself to back off. I just put myself out there for the first time ever—no way are we stopping. There had to be something she could say to get his head back in the game. She tugged on his hair again, guiding him up until her lips brushed his with every word. “Take me now, Luke, or I’m going to walk out of this pub and find the first man who will.” A bold-faced lie. If he rejected her, she’d walk back to her hostel with her tail between her legs. But in that moment, she almost believed herself. She wasn’t the shy and polite and obedient Alexis. She was wild and free and could do whatever she damn well pleased.

Whomever she damn well pleased.

His eyes narrowed. “Like hell you will.”

Oh, he didn’t like that at all. Power, overwhelming as it was unfamiliar, swept over her. This man wasn’t going to turn her down—not with that look on his face. From the sharp gleam in his green eyes, he appeared ready, willing, and able to follow through on their earlier conversation and haul her out of this bar. Oh yes.

She never thought she’d be into something like that. Sex had always been in the dark, beneath the covers, and completely as expected. She had a feeling sex with Luke wouldn’t be any of those things.

She wanted that. She wanted him.

All she had to do was push him over the edge he was obviously teetering on. “Go ahead.” Alexis dragged her nails over his jaw as she slid off his lap. “Call my bluff.”

When he just sat on the stool, seeming to consider, a wave of apprehension rolled through her. Had she misjudged the whole situation? Embarrassment beat in time with her heart, scalding her skin. She took another step away, testing him, but he didn’t move. Was he really going to let her walk out of here? The Old Alexis tried to surface, to do something to relieve the tension strung between them so tightly she could almost see it.

No. I’m not going to beg him to want me. I refuse to.

She lifted her chin and grabbed her pack off the floor. Pride might be the only thing she had left to herself, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to sacrifice it now, to some man who meant less than nothing. She hadn’t survived everything she had to break now.

With one last look at the still-unmoving Luke, she shook her head and started for the front door, refusing to glance over her shoulder. Over the years, she’d learned the hard way that looking back at what could have been was the best way to break her own heart. She’d duck around the corner and make her way back to the hostel and…take a cold shower or something. She most definitely wasn’t hurt enough by his rejection to cry. That would be downright pathetic.

She barely made it out the door when she felt his presence at her back, unmistakable despite their minuscule time spent together. “Going somewhere?”

I wasn’t wrong.

When was the last time her instincts had actually been correct? She couldn’t remember and was grinning too hard to care. This was confirmation that the trip was the right answer. Two days, and she was already reclaiming a little piece of herself.

The night wasn’t over yet. Forcing a disinterested expression onto her face, she turned around. God, he was magnificent. Tall and lean and glowering down at her like she’d gone and kicked his puppy. He wanted her, and he just as obviously didn’t like that, and hell if that didn’t make her whole night. She raised her eyebrows,