Page 25 of Temptress
“You guys have fun?”
“Oh yeah. You know how it goes. We started by painting our nails, then I showed her the proper way to shotgun a beer and how to hotwire a car if she’s ever on the run from the cops and needs to make a quick getaway.”
My smile melted away into the ever-present frown. “Funny,” I deadpanned, making her giggle.
“I’m kidding. It was great. We did the nail part, then we baked cookies and played a few games before dinner. She’s been in bed since ten thirty.”
At the mention of cookies, I sniffed the air and my stomach let out a rumble at the smell of sugar and vanilla in the air, along with something else. “What kind of cookies did you guys make?”
She stood from the couch, slipping her feet into her shoes like she was preparing to leave, and there was no denying the disappointment that scratched at my chest at the thought of that. I did the same, rising from where I’d been sitting on the coffee table.
“Peanut butter for her and oatmeal for you. She said they were your favorite and wanted to make them as a surprise for you.”
I blinked in surprise. “You made my favorite kind of cookie?”
She shrugged as though it was nothing, when the truth was, I’d been rocked to my core. “Well, yeah.” She narrowed her eyes and studied my face closely. “You seem surprised by that.”
“I—” My throat suddenly felt too tight, and I had to clear the lump of emotion in order to speak. “Well, I kind of am. Most days I’m half convinced she hates me.”
Her smile was tender and warm, and my straining dick lengthened even more, stiff enough that I soon wouldn’t be able to hide what this woman was doing to me.
“Don’t take it personally, Silas.” Fuck, but I liked the sound of my name spilling from her lush pink lips. “Speaking as a former teenage girl, there really isn’t much a parent can do that’s right. You have to remember what it was like. Parents were old and lame and embarrassing. You just have to push through. Eventually the raging hormones will calm down and she’ll mature and realize what she has.”
“Or I can fuck this all up and she reallywillhate me for the rest of her life.” I hadn’t meant to speak my greatest fear aloud, but once it was out there, there was no pulling it back.
She tilted her head back, those sweet eyes flecked with gold piercing me. “You’re a wonderful dad,” she said quietly, but the impact of those words was nothing short of profound. “Give yourself a little grace. No one is perfect, but if you love her, if you want the best for her, you’re on the right path.”
Sloane reached out, her delicate hand coming to rest on mine and sending a bolt of electricity straight to my chest. Seeing her hand on mine, the stark difference in size, I wanted to flip mine over so we were palm to palm and I could wrap my fingers around hers. I wanted to pull her into my lap and wrap my arms around her just to see if she’d fit against me, if my thighs would cradle that heart-shaped ass as perfectly as I suspected they would.
I wanted to lean in closer and pull her fresh scent deeper into my lungs.
To fuckingdevourher.
A sound akin to a growl wrenched itself from my chest and forced a gasp from Sloane as her gaze went glassy with want and she teetered forward as though her legs weren’t working correctly.
Her tongue darted out to sweep across those pretty pink lips, and I groaned at the way they glistened in the muted light. “Silas,” she said on a breath, and I could tell from just that one word that she was as affected by me as I was by her. She wanted me just as fucking badly.
Her free hand came up, her palm pressing against my chest as she tipped her head back farther, giving me perfect access to her mouth.
“Kiss me.”
13
SLOANE
“Kiss me.”
Silas blinked, and suddenly, something in those deep denim eyes changed, making my stomach sink. It was as if he was coming out of a trance. I didn’t know if it was my bold demand that did it, or something else, but from one frantic beat of my heart to the next, the crackling energy I’d felt between the two of us turned frigidly cold as he dropped his hand and took a step back, breaking our connection.
“Si—” I started, but he cut me off with the shake of his head.
“That’s not going to happen,” he said in a tone I’d never heard him use before. It wasn’t hard or pissed or teasing. It was carefully blank, void of any and all emotion. “I’m sorry, Sloane, but that’s never going to happen.”
My heart plummeted and color heated my cheeks as humiliation replaced the desire I’d felt only moments ago. Desire that I’d stupidly thought he felt as well.
I didn’t understand how I could have read that so wrong. He’d moved so close and was watching my mouth like he was starving for a taste of it. I knew I couldn’t have imagined that.
“I—what?”