“Thanks, Rory,” he said softly. “For all your help. It means a lot to me.”
I knew he wasn’t talking about the toy drive anymore. He was talking about what had happened earlier today when I’d stroked him and held him while he told me his family story, and I looked down at my feet, embarrassed as the shivering sensation from his stroking thumb slowly evolved into a warm wetness blooming between my thighs. I always seemed to get turned on by Finn at the most inappropriate of times; my body constantly betraying my true feelings for him, and I slipped my hand out of his and nodded.
“It’s okay,” I murmured. “Anyway, I better get to that store. See you soon.”
He nodded and said goodbye, and I quickly turned away, wishing I’d been able to tell him everything that I’d left unsaid so far; how much I still wanted him, how much I longed for him when he wasn’t around, how I couldn’t even think of any other man.
If I’d stayed around him any longer, I wouldn’t have been able to help myself…
***
“Here’s the last of them.”
I put an armful of wrapped gifts for the kids at the hospital down on the table in Finn’s hotel suite. He’d just returned from his volunteer shift, and he was wrapped in a towel, clearly about to shower. I tried my best to keep my gaze from floating down his abdomen, and he grinned. “Wow. You’ve been busy.”
“Yeah. The store was really generous; there were over a hundred gifts to wrap,” I said. “I’ve been at it for ages. My arms are about to fall off.”
He glanced at his watch. “Four hours by my count. Seriously, thanks. This is really helpful.”
“Well, you literally saved me from a burning building the other day,” I said, arching an eyebrow. “It’s the least I could do, you know…help Santa out a bit.”
He chuckled. “Hey, come on, you’re the one who ran into a burning building to try and rescue someone else in the first place.”
“Yeah, and I promptly fell on my ass like an idiot. By the way, how’s the insurance investigation thingy going? Was it really a hair straightener that started the fire?”
Finn gave me an odd look. “Yeah. How did you know that?”
“Elijah told me.”
“Oh, right. I guess he would’ve seen the fire department’s report when they finished it.”
I shook my head. “No, he told me on the night of the fire, just after it started.”
“The fire department only finished their report the day after the fire, though. He couldn’t have known on the night.”
I frowned and racked my brains for some sort of explanation. “Oh, I must be misremembering,” I said. “I spoke to Elijah about something else yesterday, and he probably actually mentioned it then.”
“Ah. That makes sense. Anyway, speaking of the fire, I forgot to ask…how’s your arm? It still looks pretty banged up.”#p#分页标题#e#
“Not as banged up as your face,” I said with a cheeky grin, trying to make light of the situation. Truth be told, my arm still hurt quite a bit, but I’d been lucky as hell that Finn had rescued me the way he had, so I didn’t want to bitch and moan about a stupid bruised arm and seem ungrateful at all.
He rolled his eyes at my awful joke, and we laughed together for a brief moment before I made to leave. “Well, I better get out of your way. I guess you need to shower after being in a sweaty Santa suit half the day.”
“Wanna join me?” Finn replied with a mischievous grin.
I smiled. “And you think my jokes are bad.”
“Maybe I wasn’t joking.”
His grin suddenly faded, and his left arm shot out, circling around my waist. Tingles shot up and down my spine at his touch, and I opened my mouth, fumbling my words as I spoke.
“Finn, why…what are you…”
“I can’t fucking do this anymore,” he said.
“Do what?”
He leaned closer, his arm tightening around my middle. He was so close, lips only inches from mine, and my legs trembled at his touch as his fingers slowly stroked a line across my back.
“This,” he growled. The timbre of his voice made my legs quake. “Us. We keep hanging out, laughing, helping each other with shit…but then one of us always leaves. I can’t do it anymore. I’m not letting you get away this time, Rory.”
I squirmed in his grip, knowing exactly where this was going. God, I wanted him, and I had for so long, but we couldn’t actually do this….could we?
Finn’s eyes were still fixed on mine, his gaze smoldering and intense, and I wanted to melt into the floor. It was just like the first time I’d seen him, when he’d stared at me from across the room and set my heart aflutter all those weeks ago.