He just stares.

“I don’t want to be all hot and bothered making out with you on your couch and some woman walks in—”

“She’s turning in her key once she finishes picking up her stuff.” He drops his hands, sighing, and I shift on my feet as he puts his hands in his pockets and stares at me from a few feet away.

I raise my eyes. My voice wavers. “I can’t do this, it’s too complicated.”

“Do you want this?” he asks.

“It’s just that the timing…”

“There’s always going to be something wrong with the timing. Or with me. Or with you. Or with some other bullshit.” He clenches his jaw, his eyes brilliantly intense as he takes another step. “I’m asking if you want this, Bryn Kelly.”

“Do you?” I croak.

“I want you more than you could possibly fathom.”

He smells so good I feel dizzy, my brain completely out of order as I go up on tiptoes and graze his lips with mine.

I realize what I’m doing and drop back down, and when I do, I’m red head to toe. “I don’t know what’s come over me.” I sit up and straighten myself.

“Whatever it is, I approve,” he rasps huskily, his eyes smiling in pure male pleasure.

Seeing my blush intensify, he cups my face and sets his nose to mine—brilliant, lustful eyes staring into my eyes. “Hey. Don’t fight it.”

“I have to. I’d be stupid not to.”

“Why?”

“Because. You…bother me, Aaric.”

“I want you, Bryn.”

I gulp and squirm in my panties.

“I still want you, little bit.”

My heart is racing harder each time he repeats those words.

“I wanted you before. That doesn’t hold a candle to the way I want you now.” He takes my shoulders, looking at me. “I’ll try to be patient. I didn’t have time before, but I do now,” he continues. “But you’re something I’ve wanted for a very long time, Bryn, and I’m only human.”

“Aaric, if things get messy, then we’re fucked.”

“They don’t have to get messy as long as we’re clear with each other and set some boundaries.”

“Like no exclusivity? No, thanks.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“The way you’ve carried on these years, I think I see more of the boy you were than there is actually left.”

“You didn’t want the boy.”

“You don’t know that,” I shoot back, angry at him putting the boy down.

“I do know that.”

“There were reasons. Mainly me. But I’d have a do-over if I could. That’s how much I regret not seeing what if I’d kissed you back that day.”

He clenches his jaw.

“But you…I just don’t know that this can go anywhere,” I say.

“It goes to my bed. You and me in it. For as long as we want to.”

“Then what?” I answer myself, “Then we remain friendly. Business partners?”

“I’m never going to be your enemy, if that’s what you’re thinking.” He strokes a hand down my hair, staring into my eyes as he adds, “I don’t want to hurt you. I’ve never wanted to hurt you. I thought I knew what I wanted. I wanted A, but then you come back into my life. Turning things around.”

“So you wanted A, what the hell am I, Z?”

He laughs. “You’re the rest.”

He watches me pick up my things, plunging his hands into his pockets as I head to the door and glance back at him.

“Not the start, but the end,” he says.

I just smile, trying to hide the fact that my heart is skipping, and I head out for the safety of my apartment, where no tempting sex god tells me he wants me. Where the boy of my past is still a memory.

Bryn

“Don’t lick my balls, man, tell me the stats,” Christos tells Cole as they examine HOS market research.

A team of five other men and women are present. I’ve been silently watching Christos who has only been speaking to Cole throughout the meeting.

“Well, fuck, you’re moody,” Cole grumbles, sending the paperwork Christos’s way.

Christos scans the documents while the team begins explaining to the rest of us.

Aaric watches the presentation—silent.

Something about the fact that he’s so quiet seems sexy to me. He’s clearly the more powerful man in the room, but his attitude is calm, in control, subdued, even though his energy is a pulsing, magnetizing, electric thing.

I exhale and try to take notes. The information we have gathered will be incorporated into the software this week. I’m trying to focus on business—exclusively, because whenever I start thinking of Aaric and the possibility of being with him, I get distracted and my childhood fears arise.

Mom once told me if you want to earn yourself half a man, be half of a woman. If you want a full man, you need to be the full version of yourself. Never expect anyone to complete you. Don’t be two halves to make a whole, be two wholes and make something more.

I’m trying to be that.

But the truth is, I’m running on adrenaline here. Fantasizing about this man touching me—taking me—is thrilling, and now that I see him every day, the sexual tension between us is thick enough it’s a miracle other people can fit inside this room with us.

I’m silent as they keep hashing things out, and once the group departs, Aaric gives me a look that makes me linger behind as they shut the door.