I held his.
This lasted a while, both of us staring at each other three feet away.
Finally, I could take it no longer.
“Please, Tack, move away from the door.”
Tack moved. He just didn’t do it away from the door.
He came at me.
My heart started hammering in my chest and my feet took me back. I bumped into the desk and scooted to the side, still retreating. Then my thigh bumped into the chair and it went flying, such was the hastiness of my retreat.
Tack kept coming at me and my retreat might have been hasty but his advance was far more rapid. My thundering heart skidded to a halt when his arm shot out, hooking me at the waist right before I would have slammed into a file cabinet. He jerked me to the side but kept coming until I was back against the wall. Then his arm around my waist tightened, yanking me against the hard wall of his frame.
My hand went to his chest to try to force him back but he stood firm as his other hand came up, palm at my jaw, fingers curled around my neck and ear.
“Please,” I whispered, bracing as his head descended toward mine, “don’t.”
Just when I thought his lips would hit mine, they veered to the side opposite where his hand was at my jaw. His fingers dug in, his arm around me tightened even further, plastering me against his body and his lips went to my ear.
“You f**ked up, Red,” he whispered.
I closed my eyes tight and pushed against his chest, my other hand going to his waist and fisting in his tee, pushing there too.
“Made the wrong decision,” he went on in a whisper.
I opened my eyes.
God, I had to get out of there.
“Please, let me go.”
“You been asleep, baby.”
My body went still at his words.
Tack kept talking.
“Green tea. Yoga. No TV. Placemats for your coffee table. Thursday night takeaway. You got a night for takeaway. Scheduled. A narrow, little world. Fuck me. Crazy. Fuckin’ whacked. I woke you up, opened your eyes to a bigger world and scared you shitless.”
Oh God.
This was not good. He had me figured out.
“Let me go,” I begged.
His arm tightened even further and his lips stayed at my ear.
“You give it good, darlin’, that attitude. So good, I thought that was you. That isn’t you. Not all of you. I got on my hands the girl at the party who looked at me like I was the only man on the planet even when she was in a sea of people, took my hand with all the trust in the world that I was gonna make things good for her and followed me to my bed. You f**ked up making the wrong decision Friday night. But I f**ked up forgetting about that girl.”
I closed my eyes. I liked that. I liked that he saw that. And I liked that he admitted he f**ked up. I didn’t think he had it in him but I liked it that he did.
Oh hell.
“Please, let me go,” I pleaded.
“So much to you, never had a woman who has so much that makes her. Every day, more comes out and all of it is a surprise.”