Watch Me Fall (Ross Siblings, #5)(94)
“You don’t have anything to apologize for,” she said softly.
“I do. I wish I’d handled things differently. I wish you’d stayed. I was…” He sighed and ran a hand through his soft black hair. She was momentarily fascinated by the way it caught the overhead lights. “I don’t have an excuse. I should have let myself unwind before we talked about any of it.”
“I’m sorry too,” she said, sounding so small. “I’m scared. I’m broken.”
He stepped closer, gently resting his hands on her upper arms. “You’re strong.”
“Yeah, I ran away from everything, like you said. I’m so strong.” For the first time, she dared to look up at him. At his eyes. Blue was too weak a description. They were striated with every hue from royal to denim to cobalt to lapis and every shade in between, shining all for her. Never again would she have to compare them to anyone else’s. She was ruined for all others.
“You took a leap. You believed in yourself. Everything crashed down around you, and you built something new from the ashes.”
“I’m the one who brought it all down.”
“You had help. Starla…I don’t want to save you if you don’t want me to. I don’t want to slay your dragons. I don’t want to crash into your new life and disrupt it. I only want to be with you whenever and however I can.” His big, warm hands moved from her arms to her face, framing her, forcing her to meet his hypnotic gaze. She trembled. “I don’t want to compete with your past. I don’t care about it. You’re not broken, you’re beautiful. I only want to love you. Let me. Just let me.” She tasted those last three words as his mouth descended on hers as if he couldn’t hold himself back from her another second, and oh f*ck, he tasted good. Starla gasped from the suddenness, the warmth, the sheer relief that swooped through her body and lit it up like it had never been lit before. Even all the dusty, dark, cobwebbed corners of her soul brightened, though she knew she would have to see and face that ugliness before she could clean it out.
His strong arms caught her as her knees buckled, but she managed to somehow reach over and lock her office door. Oh God, he was sweet. She ground her hips into his and was rewarded with his hands going to her ass, forcing an even closer contact. “I do want that tattoo,” he murmured against her ear, and she chuckled.
“Really? You’re thinking about that now?”
“Yes. I’m thinking I’m not going to f*ck you here. I’m thinking I’m going to take you back to your place, or mine if you want, but yours is closer. And that’s important. I have a lot of time to make up for. It could take all night.” His teeth caught her earlobe, giving a nibble. His big, hard hands squeezed her ass. Her entire body trembled as she felt his cock through his jeans, and she wondered how in the hell she would make it through the next few hours without that inside her, without his beard scratching her inner thighs, without his tongue on her clit.
“You make me wait that long, and I’m gonna be an animal,” she warned him.
“I’m counting on it.”
Hardest man to f*ck I’ve ever met.
Luckily, she was rarely one to back down from a challenge.
***
Maybe he’d lost his mind, but if this was insanity then it felt damn good. He loved being in Starla’s chair, under her capable, insanely talented hands, feeling the expert bite of her needle. Although he started small with only Ashley’s and Mia’s names and birthday in a banner on the back of his shoulder, he could imagine doing this again. He got off on watching Starla be all professional.
“Maybe I’ll get a third name someday soon,” he joked, looking over his shoulder to give her a wink.
She practically leapt back. “What, mine? Oh no. That’s like the kiss of doom, and I refuse to doom us.”
“I think we’ll be all right.”
“Still.” She rolled her chair closer again, holding his gaze for a moment before going back to her work. “Let’s not take any chances.”
It was difficult to sit there with her presence radiating warmly against his back like a direct ray of sunshine. He wanted to look at her. He could smell her peachy scent—he could practically taste her. Soon he would, but dammit, he’d waited long enough.
At last, she was done, and when she handed him a mirror so he could see the finished product in the mirror on the wall, his mouth fell open. The design she’d drawn up had been simple, but on his skin she’d put such life into it. “I love it,” he said, momentarily at a loss.
“Do you?” She sounded anxious. Setting down the mirror, he turned and wrapped her in his arms, feeling her body stiffen a little because they were right there in full sight of everyone in the shop. After a second, though, she relaxed and laid her head against his naked chest.
“I do. Thank you. It’s beautiful.” The girls would be tickled. He couldn’t wait to show them.
They were like a couple of awkward teenagers on the drive over to her new place, stealing glances at each other and exchanging stupidly giddy grins. She directed him to a nice apartment complex and led him up a flight of stairs—he memorized the way for future reference. When she unlocked the door and yanked him inside intent on kissing him senseless, he stopped her and looked around at the sparse surroundings.