Chapter 73

Standing there in the foyer, she told him about her brother and how she was worried about Candace's news. He listened, his hold on her never faltering even as her voice thickened with the admission that she was afraid about what her brother had gotten himself into and how they should have checked on him more often.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he murmured, his big hands rubbing up and down her spine. She burrowed closer into his frame, seeking his strength, leaning into it. “But I don't think it's any of your fault though. Your brother is an adult. More of your presence in his life wouldn't have stopped him from doing what he wanted to do,”

She eased out of his embrace and scrubbed both hands down her face. Pacing away from him, she let loose a small, humorless chuckle. “Yeah I guess,” She paused midstride, whirling around to face him. “I just hope we figure out a way to help him before things get worse,”

Nick slowly approached her as one might with an injured animal. And as offensive as that thought struck her, the sentiment wasn’t that far off.

“Michelle.” He swept a hand over her hair, his fingers curling into the bun on top of her head before continuing down, where he cupped the back of her neck.

He lifted his other hand to her cheek and skated his thumb over it. For a long moment, he peered down at her, those startlingly beautiful eyes too knowing.

“Everything will be fine, and I'll do everything I can to help too,”

He pressed his lips to her forehead, and Michelle closed her eyes, savoring that caress as much as she soaked up his words. Because, God, she wanted him to be there for her. Desperately needed him to be. Nodding, she stepped back, forcing his hands to drop away. Good. She could think clearer when those mind-muddling hands weren’t touching her.

“Your turn.” She strode into the living room, making a beeline for her neglected wineglass. She needed it more than ever now. “What’re you doing here? And don’t try to tell me you were just in the neighborhood,”

With the question out there, a dense tension, fraught with sex, filled the room. At least on her part. Because images from the night before bombarded her—the two of them twisted, tangled and naked.

Snatching up her glass, she downed half in several gulps before turning to look at him. And from the gleam brightening that gaze until it damn near glowed, she guessed his thoughts had ventured in the same direction. But then he shook his head, glancing away. When he returned his scrutiny to her several moments later, that heat was banked, and frustration and disappointment commingled inside her.

Fine. They were going to ignore the topic of cataclysmic sex. Duly noted.

“Honestly, I don’t know.” He lifted a shoulder, a wry smile quirking the corners of his mouth. “I was sitting at home and had no plans for the evening, but then I’m in my car and sitting outside your house. I think I couldn’t stand my own company.”

“I understand that. I haven’t been able to stand your company before.” She smiled around the rim of her glass, taking another sip as he snorted. “There’s something you’re not telling me. Might as well spill, because if you drove all the way over here, I’m not letting it go.” When he didn’t immediately reply, she exhaled. “Oh, shit. Is this going to require more wine?”

“Probably. Definitely. If you have anything harder, get it.”

Minutes later, she had another bottle on the table and passed him a glass filled to the brim.

“Sorry. Nothing stronger. Now tell me. Let me make it better.”

He stared at her, and her breath caught at the flash of desire in his gaze. Yeah, her word choice could’ve been different. Damn if she’d take it back, though. If he needed her body again she’d willingly give it to him.

Lowering his thick fringe of lashes, he accepted the glass, their fingertips grazing and sending an electrified current snapping up her arm and tingling in her breasts. Silently, she ordered her nipples not to harden beneath her thin hoodie

“The reason I came over here,” he said in a low voice that stroked over her skin in a silken caress. Her nipples didn’t stand a chance against that voice. And her sex just gave up the fight. “Is because I’m weak. I’ve tried to give you space today, but I wanted to see you. Inhale that scent directly from the source that’s embedded in my sheets. Touch this body that I can still feel on my hands. I needed to look in your eyes and see if you regretted taking me inside you.”

Taking me inside you.

Oh, how her core clenched around those words as if they were his cock. Regrets? Not that. Not when he’d filled her so completely that even now, she felt him. Even now, she wanted more.

"Talk to me.” He reached out, took her hand and flipped it over, grazed those wicked lips over her palm and, damn, who knew that nerve in the center had a direct line to her sex? “What are you thinking, Michelle?”

“No.” She cleared her throat. “I don’t regret last night. But I would be lying if I didn’t say I was worried.”

He lifted his head, and his gaze grew hooded, shuttered. She’d known him long enough to recognize when Nick was hiding something. Disquiet bloomed in her belly.

“Worried? About what?”

“What it means for us.” As hard as it was to maintain visual contact with him, she did it. Because she needed to glimpse the truth in his eyes. “Where do we go from here? Are we just fuck buddies? What does this do to our friendship?” She whispered the last question, part of her afraid to hear his answer.

If he said he wanted a “friends with benefits” relationship, that might crush her because she couldn’t stand it. Not with the way she was feeling now. They meant more to each other than that—were more to each other than that.

But what if they tried for more and it didn’t work out? What if they didn’t survive adding sex to their relationship? Where would that leave them? Losing Nick... That would break her.