Guarding Temptation - Talia Hibbert Page 0,28

at her hips and squeezed. She felt his dick swelling beneath her, waited for him to push her away and try to hide it.

He didn’t.

Instead James stayed right where he was, massive dick and all, his grip on her tight and possessive. He asked with a dark note of amusement in his voice, “Huggable? Is that what they call guys like me these days?”

“Maybe.” She tried to ignore the sensation spiralling from his touch—this was supposed to be a soft and mushy conversation, not a Horny Nina conversation. It wasn’t as if he’d just grabbed her tits, for Christ’s sake. And yet his big hands resting on her hips felt unbearably erotic.

If they were naked like this, he’d be gripping her tight and pushing her down onto his shaft.

She swallowed, pushing the thought away for later. “‘Bear’ would probably fit, too.”

He pulled back and arched an eyebrow. “Which means...?”

“You really don’t know?”

“I’m a lot older than you,” he sighed. “I don’t know all this slang shit.”

“First of all, six-and-a-half years is not a lot. Jesus, you’re so dramatic.”

“And second of all?” His smile was a blatant tease.

There was no bloody second of all. With as much dignity as she could manage, Nina sniffed, “Some things are said purely for dramatic effect, you know.”

He laughed, and in that moment, he was so achingly beautiful that the force of her need almost broke her. She put a hand to his face, unable to stop herself, hypnotised by the sight of his joy—the curve of his full lips, the freedom in his smile, the lines cradling his dark eyes. He calmed slowly, his laughter fading until nothing but white-hot intensity remained.

“Nina,” he said softly, and that one word let her know that everything was about to change. “I adore you too. I think my biggest fear might be losing you.”

Her heart constricted. Something fluttered in her chest, a mixture of longing and panic. She bit her lip bloodless and kept her hand against his cheek and—hoped.

Sometimes, hope worked.

“I was so afraid,” he went on steadily, his voice low and rough with emotion, “that I let fear make me a coward. But you know what, Cupake? I don’t think it suits me.”

She swallowed. Hard. “Funny. I’ve been thinking the same thing about myself.”

One of James’s hands slid under her T-shirt to touch her bare skin. He swept his thumb over the curve of her hip, and a mortifying little whimper tumbled from her lips. What was it about this man? Was it the way he looked her in the eye as he touched her, like he was starving for every little reaction? Was it the slow, tantalising ease with which he teased out her responses?

Or was it the love she’d kept locked up in her chest until it grew too huge to hide or contain or deny?

Um, yeah, probably that last one.

“James,” she blurted out, with no idea what she might say next, except that it would probably be embarrassingly honest.

Except he got there first.

“I want you,” he said. “I’m not talking about sex, Nina. I want you. Bad. I can think of a thousand reasons why I shouldn’t, but I’ve been trying to stop for a while, and I can’t, so I guess none of those reasons really matter. I just need to know if you want me, too—”

“I do,” she said, breathless, giddy, her mind scrambled with pleasure. Her fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt as if part of her feared this moment might be yanked away as suddenly as it had come.

“But how?” he demanded. His fingers slid over her throat in a possessive hold she’d never felt from him before—but he’d come close, she remembered; often, he’d come close. He was always holding onto her in a thousand little ways, touching her more firmly than a friend might.

And she’d missed every signal. Or maybe he’d just hidden them well beneath that calm, reasonable fa?ade.

“How do you want me?” he demanded. “Because half-measures aren’t an option. I told you once I can’t be like those boys you take to bed. I can’t be that to you. I won’t. And if that’s all you’re offering, I’m not—I won’t take it.” He forced the words out between clenched teeth as if they hurt to say, but still, he said them. “We’ll just have to go back to the way it was before. I’ll still be here, Nina. But when it comes to this—this thing between us, I’m all or nothing.”

And with