Warning Track (Callahan Family #1) - Carrie Aarons Page 0,43
I shouldn’t. We both know we’ve been skirting around this, refusing to say it out loud and avoiding seeing each other. But I’m not going to let you think I want another woman. I want you so badly, I ache for you.”
“I …” The word is a squeak out of my mouth, and I don’t get another word in.
Because Hayes’ hands dive into my hair, and then he kisses me.
The meeting of our mouths isn’t patient, on either end. The minute our lips touch, I throw myself full throttle into the moment. The kiss is passion intensified, months of tension, frustration and the anger of tonight unleashed in this one moment.
Hayes’ tongue slides into my mouth, warm and skilled, as he shifts my head to a better angle. He’s controlling every aspect of our mouths crashing together over and over again, like waves that will never stop beating upon the shore. My insides quake, I’m too hot and my knees are practically giving out. The sensations he’s stoking low in my core are ones I haven’t felt in ages, and they’re so intense that I feel as though I could come from his kiss alone.
A low growl emanates from his throat, vibrating into my mouth and shooting all the way down my spine. This is the kiss that ruins all other kisses. I will forever compare any moving forward to this one, and the desire I’m feeling toward Hayes is bigger than any I’ve felt for another man.
He slides a hand down my neck, palming my breast through the material of my blouse. I don’t shy away, which I’ve been worried about since the assault. Would I feel comfortable being with a man, trusting someone to touch me after that? Clearly, my body has no problem with Hayes trying to unbutton my blouse, because I’m pushing my breasts out as if they’re longing to be held by him.
But my brain … that’s a different story. I begin to snap back to reality a bit, realizing just where we are and who we are.
I can’t do this. We can’t do this.
I’m still struggling to get a grip on the scandal my father caused, both professionally and personally. The organization is just starting to wipe some of the dirt off its face, we’re finally getting some good press and the media is reporting on our actual wins rather than the dirty underbelly of the industry my father helped create.
And for me, I’m finally hitting my stride. I feel comfortable in my office, have more of a handle on my day-to-day duties, and I haven’t let my father and his doubts invade my thoughts in a few days. Which is better than I’ve been doing. I still haven’t been able to open the letter he sent, or have a frank conversation with Uncle Daniel about how he needs to stop treating me like his niece, and more like his business partner.
But I’m doing well, the team is doing well.
Getting involved with a player, much less one with a star image like Hayes Swindell, is the absolute worst thing I could possibly do. Kissing him alone is probably a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen.
“Hayes.” I press a hand to his chest, his heart hammering under the material of his shirt.
The kiss is broken, but he doesn’t move away. Doesn’t even move his hand where it’s molded to my breast. Both of us are breathing heavy, and I’m trying to remember why I stopped us in the first place. My lips long to be under his again. The wetness that coats my panties has me thrusting my hips involuntarily, which should be embarrassing, but I’m almost dizzy with lust.
“We can’t do this,” I tell him, repeating my own thoughts.
His eyes burn with greedy passion. “You kissed me back.”
I sigh, because of course, I did. I want to do it again. But that isn’t the point.
“I did, but it can’t happen again. I … I shouldn’t tell you what I’m feeling, it won’t help. What I will remind us both of is the fallout that could come from this if anyone found out. There is no world in which we work out, at least not while you’re in the league, or possibly while I have a career in it at all. We both know this. With everything you’ve already been put through, and all that I have on the line with this team and my father’s crimes …”