The man shook his head sharply, like he was a woman brushing her hair off her shoulders. “Obviously, I had no idea that happened.”
“We just told you,” Deacon returned. “You’ll get a letter with an invoice but your card is gonna be charged a thousand extra dollars. Suck it up. Don’t challenge the charge. And don’t ever come back to Glacier Lily. You with me?”
“Like I’d ever come back to this place,” the man returned snidely.
“Good you feel that way,” Deacon muttered before he shifted us back and slammed the door in the man’s face.
I looked up at him to tell him how awesome that was, how awesome he was, and try my luck with jumping his bones in my foyer.
I didn’t get even a word out because I saw the look on Deacon’s face and the words died in my throat.
That look being blank. Void. Emotionless.
We’d just had a scene with two parents. He’d spent the night with me tucked to his side in my bed. We’d had sex on my kitchen table. He’d told me how he felt about me (kind of).
And we were back to this.
Then he lifted both his hands, sliding his fingers along my jaw and cupping them in his palms, his hands so big, fingers so long, his fingertips glided into my hair, and he pressed them into my scalp.
I held my breath as I looked up into his eyes.
Eyes that were traveling over my features, still void, still emotionless, but taking me in.
I didn’t move, didn’t speak. I felt he was taking that time, making a decision, and I wanted him to come to the right one.
I thought he did when he murmured, “Most beautiful woman I’ve ever fuckin’ seen.”
I loved that. Flipping loved it.
But even as that feeling soared through me, I would find I was wrong.
I knew it when he let me go.
I pivoted woodenly to watch him saunter to my stairs and up them.
I stayed there, eyes glued to the stairs, unmoving so I was in the exact same place when he came back, this time wearing his boots.
That was when I knew I was right to panic last night.
I’d lost him.
He’d given me something. Something precious. Making me not feel like a stupid slut who’d let a stranger fuck her on the kitchen table then took off after getting off and he did this by spending the night with me, holding me in his arms.
But that was as much as he had to give.
Honestly?
I was surprised he had that in him.
I was grateful all the same.
That said, it didn’t make me feel the slightest bit better.
He came to me and did the same thing he did earlier, except just one hand was cupped to my jaw, fingertips pressed into my scalp.
I took his touch, wanting more, much, much more, and I stared up at him knowing I’d already got more than Deacon was able to give. I did it also knowing no way he’d let me be greedy.
It was my turn to let my eyes travel over his features. Take in his male beauty. Memorize it. Do it knowing that as crazy as it sounded, I’d never forget him. For reasons I didn’t know and would never have the opportunity to understand, there would always be a part of me that would long for him. There would always be thoughts in the back of my mind plaguing me, haunting me, making me wonder, if he let me in, even just a little, how it could have been.