“Tell me, when he touches you, kisses you, does your skin sing for him?” I could barely choke the words out. Just thinking about Carter holding her, touching her, made my stomach churn. “Does your blood rush, your lips part just thinking about his kiss? Does your body vibrate when he’s close, remembering every orgasm he can wring from you?” I crossed the friendship line, sliding my fingers along her collarbone to rest inside her shirt, above her galloping heart. Her eyes flew open, and her lips parted. I wasn’t near her breasts, but I was still too close. “Your heart doesn’t pound like this for him, does it?”

“That…that is none of your business.” We were so close her breath hit my lips in little bursts.

“Does he treat you like a little sister in bed, too? Is that really what you want? A platonic sex life with a guy who uses you as a replacement for your older sister?”

She sucked in her breath and jerked away from me, escaping my arms. Her eyes narrowed. “Go to hell, Jagger.” She walked off, leaving the parking lot silent but for the cars going by.

I hit my head lightly into Lucy’s window. “I’m already there, Paisley.”

Chapter Fourteen

Paisley

7. Go completely off course.

I slipped the Steinbeck novel into place and made sure the row was even. We were just shy of—wait, I checked my watch. No, time to close up now. I’d avoided Jagger this whole week, and their project was finished, our storage room a model of organization and access. Dang, I hadn’t even seen him leave. Now if I could decide if I was pleased with that decision or not. I ran my fingers along the spines as I turned the corner of the bookshelves.

“Does he treat you like a little sister in bed, too? Is that really what you want? A platonic sex life with a guy who uses you as a replacement for your older sister?”

Jagger’s words ripped through me again, shredding the pretty paper my relationship with Will had been wrapped in and revealing the banged-up truth beneath it.

Ugh, I hated him for seeing our weakness by watching us for twenty minutes.

I shooed out a couple of guys studying near the doors. “I’m so sorry, gentlemen, but we’re closing up for the evening.” I gave them a friendly smile and walked them to the doors after they gathered their things.

I hadn’t finished Alice’s routine, but I wasn’t a fan of leaving the doors open past closing, so I turned the key and locked myself inside. Beep, beep, beep. The alarm sounded on my cell phone as I slipped off my ballet flats. Once I choked my meds down, I locked the front door, too. One more to go.

I turned the doorknob to the storage room and opened the door. “Dang! Jagger, you scared the living daylights out of me!” My hand clutched at my chest in reflex.

He slung his black messenger bag across his body and gave me an icy smile. “Sorry. I was just packing up.” His jeans hung low on his hips, and when he hooked his thumbs in his pockets and stretched his shoulders, his worn concert tee rose above the waistband, giving me a peek of what had been burned in my memory since Florida.

“We’re closed.” One day I would not say the most ludicrous things around this man. Today was apparently not that day.

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t lock me in. That probably would have screwed my weekend.”

“Big plans?” Please say no.

“Yeah, I thought I’d have a party or two. There’s this really cute brunette two houses down, and Josh and Masters are both gone for the weekend. Nothing like having the house to myself.” Anger washed off him in waves, and it was all directed at me.

Well, I could sure as sin give as good as I got. He wasn’t the only angry one here.

“Then I guess it’s too bad you’re not done working here.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” He looked around, trying to find the flaw that wasn’t there. “We finished. We did everything your daddy told us to, and now we get to go back to our real lives.” Fire flickered in his blue eyes, and my breath caught. He looked primal, raw, and I wasn’t sure I was capable of handling him.

“Those shelves are a disaster.” I laid my palms on the huge wooden worktable in the center. “Nothing is organized, and I’m pretty sure that table over there”—I pointed to the corner—“is fixing to fall apart at any second.” I looked over my shoulder. “Is this really the best you can do?”

His eyes narrowed dangerously as he crossed the three steps that separated us. I counted them with my heartbeats. “First, you’re the one that did the organization, and second, this room is perfect. We’re done. Josh, Grayson. Me and you. All done.”

Ouch. “How do you expect to become a pilot with this lack of attention to detail?” I needed to draw his blood. “You’re blind.”

“Yeah? Well, at least I can see what’s right fucking in front of me.” He spun me around, and as I gasped, his lips landed on mine.

He took the opening, sliding into my mouth as his hands did the same with my hair. He held me to him, stroking the roof of my mouth, pulling away just to dive back in.

My shock lasted a heartbeat. Maybe two. Then I rubbed my tongue against his and pressed closer. His groan vibrated through his chest, and I was swept up in everything…Jagger.

He pressed me into the table, bringing our bodies flush. He was massive, surrounding me as he drove me breathless with soft lips and hard kisses that tasted like peppermint. Need ripped through me like a shock wave, and I heard a moan. Oh, God. It was me. Yes, those were my hands at his back, fisted in his T-shirt, pulling him closer. That was my body arched into his, and the friction felt so good. He consumed me, owned me, and I loved it because in that second, I owned him, too.