Boiling Point (Crossing the Line #3)(61)

Breathe. Breathe. Missing someone was a long way off from loving, so he needed to keep his shit together until she got there, too. And he had to have faith that she would. Otherwise what was the point of living anymore? “Polly, I don’t want you to lose yourself. I can amend the plan to leave you out of it. I—”

“No.” She shook her head. “No. I need to know I played a part in ending the pain he causes. I need to be involved or I’ll always regret it.”

Austin swallowed hard. “What if you regret being involved even more? I can relate to that, sweet. It’s an ugly feeling and you’re too beautiful to feel it.”

Time seemed to suspend between them, a brutal ticking of time wherein Austin wondered if he’d said something wrong. In the end, she reached up and smoothed his eyebrow with her thumb. “Do you want to come meet my father?”





Chapter Seventeen


Amazing. The offer of meeting her father hadn’t been made in some postorgasmic haze. And it was some motherf*cker of a haze Austin had left her in. On the twenty-minute walk back to her father’s condo, she’d kept expecting to get cold feet. After all, she was about to introduce Reitman’s ex-partner to the man whose life had been obliterated by the very same con. On a scale of chess team captain to unemployed musician, Austin broke the suitable boyfriend scale in half. Then sank it to the bottom of the Chicago River.

But as they’d walked along a back route toward the condo, hands brushing several times before Austin had taken hold of hers with a muttered “grow a pair,” she’d actually started to look forward to the introduction. Drake was an open-minded person who trusted her judgment. And if there were a few bumps along the way to pleasant, Austin knew better than anyone how to take a jab.

Polly frowned over at Austin, who was staring at their joined hands out of the corner of his eye. She didn’t appreciate him having to take so many jabs, or that she’d been the one to deliver them for so long. If everyone could look a little deeper, the way she’d done recently, they would see that he wasn’t the sum of his arrogance. And he was plenty arrogant, but he only used it to hide his generosity, his need to please. Polly flushed at the last part. When they got back to Chicago, she would set about rectifying everyone’s assumption that they could treat Austin like scum stuck to the bottom of their shoes.

“What are you glowering at, sweet?” He lifted her hand to his mouth, breathing on her knuckles. “Do we need to break into another house and traumatize a second feline?”

Stomach twisting in a slow knot, she looked up at him from beneath her eyelashes. “Not right this second, but I reserve the right to make the request at a later date.”

His grip tightened on her hand. “I told you, I don’t accept requests from you.”

She welcomed the tingle of power in her limbs. The more she grew accustomed to the rush, the better it felt. “I’ll tell you when I want it.”

Austin dipped his chin. “Better. So what were you really thinking about?”

The touch of vulnerability in his tone drew honesty out of her. No more holding back. “I was thinking, I can’t wait for the next squad meeting so I can sit beside you again.” The words ached on their way out. “That I’m sorry I missed the chance last time.”

When she risked a look to gauge Austin’s reaction, the intensity she witnessed in his expression made her stumble on the sidewalk. He pulled her close, so close, dropping his forehead onto hers. “Say more things like that.”

Polly gulped for air. “I liked sitting next to you, even when I didn’t want to admit it,” she admitted. “Last week, when I was waiting in your apartment, I stole your shaving cream because the smell comforts me. But it didn’t comfort me when it wasn’t on you. It was always you.” His breath pelted her mouth in harsh pants, encouraging her to keep going. Sensing that her praise was affecting him in some important, unseen way. “I don’t ever want you to disguise yourself from me or for me ever again.”

“Okay,” he whispered. “I hated the times I was unrecognizable to you, Polly. I always want you to recognize me.”

“I recognized you today. I think I always will now.”

His eyes closed briefly. “That was the best feeling I’ve had in a long time.” He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth and released it gently. “Not counting the times you’ve had your hands on me. Or the times you’ve looked at me or spoken to me. Or drank the tea I brought you.” Her top lip got a turn in Austin’s mouth. “You are the feeling.”

If she stood on the sidewalk letting his mouth play with hers another minute, she would be under Austin-hypnosis. With a commendable effort, Polly stepped back, ignoring his protesting growl. “Is my father the first you’ve been introduced to?”

Austin narrowed his gaze, snagging her hand once again as they started to walk. “What do you think?”

Polly bit back her hesitation. “I told him about you.” She glanced over. “About your chosen career.”

His visible surprise was fleeting, but she suspected he was internalizing. “Should I be glad that you told your father about me? Or worried that this meeting is doomed before it begins?”

“I think he’ll surprise you.”

“Well.” He laughed under his breath. “If he’s anything like his daughter…”