Page 48 of Love to Hate You

Carter presses his mouth against my ear. “Are you okay?”

Unable to speak, I nod.

His voice dips, becoming more of an urgent whisper. One that arrows right to the heart of me. “I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you, Daisy. Not ever.”

I suck in a shaky breath. The guy I tried to poison with laxatives just saved my life. It’s not funny, but it kind of is.

I turn my face until my lips brush the side of his cheek. “Thank you.”

Instead of finding his proximity disconcerting, I want to close my eyes and lean more fully into him.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Why aren’t I fighting this attraction?

“You don’t have to thank me,” his voice turns gruff as his arms tighten around me until their warmth seeps through the cottony material of my shirt. I realize that I don’t want him to let me go. “I meant what I said, I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.”

Unsure how to respond, I nod but stay silent.

And just like that, everything changes between us once again.