Hang Tough(45)

“But you . . .” He closed his eyes and scrolled through those first few days, when any discussion between them turned into an argument. When he tossed out accusations . . . that she never confirmed.

But she hadn’t denied them either.

Fuck. He drained his beer and turned around to set the empty bottle next to the sink, keeping his back to her, bracing his hands on the counter.

How had this gotten so fucked?

Because you’re a fucking idiot.

“Tobin?”

“What?”

“Talk to me. Please.”

“What do you want me to say? That I lost out on an opportunity that would’ve been great for me because I’m a sucker? That once again, when I thought I was doin’ the right thing . . . it turned around and bit me in the ass?” He allowed a bitter laugh to escape. “Don’t they always say nice guys finish last? When the fuck am I ever gonna learn that?”

“I’m sorry.”

He grunted.

Her hand, soft and warm, glided up his back. “What can I do?”

“Nothin’.” Tobin expected her to walk away. He didn’t expect her to wrap her arms around his waist and press her cheek into the middle of his back. He closed his eyes and gave himself a moment to remember why he was so crazy about this woman.

This sweetness.

This affection.

This connection.

“I’m sorry,” she said again. “I hate that you were caught up in this. I hate that I believed you had ulterior motives when it came to my grandma.” Her arms tightened around him. “I really hate that you’re feeling one of my very favorite things about you—the fact you are the real deal, a nice guy to the core—is somehow a flaw. It’s not.” She sniffled. “It’s so not.”

“Jade—”

“Let me finish. As badly as I feel that you missed a chance to put your advanced degree to better use than what you’re doing now, I’m not sorry you’re not leaving. Not at all.”

His heart raced.

“If anyone should go, it should be me. Whatever purpose I was supposed to serve by being here . . . is done. I told my dad earlier today that Grandma is fine living on her own. She has friends. She’s part of a community. She has everything she needs right here. You were right. GG doesn’t need me or my dad messing that up for her. She doesn’t need me for anything.”

“I need you.” He surprised her as much as himself when he said that out loud.

Jade didn’t retreat. “You don’t have to say that.”

He tried to look over his shoulder at her. “Darlin’, why would I say something I didn’t mean?”

“Because you’re a nice guy.”

Tobin slowly turned around. He framed her beautiful face in his hands and bent down until they were eye to eye. “I’m not that fucking nice.” Then his mouth crashed down on hers.

The kiss was hot and wet. Fierce. Full throttle from the first thrust of his tongue.

But Jade wasn’t passive; she unleashed the tiger, proving her appetite for him was as voracious as his was for her, making the sexiest, neediest fucking moans he’d ever heard.

What little restraint he had snapped.

A kiss wasn’t going to be enough. Not now. Not when she plastered her hot, curvy body to his so completely a piece of sheet music wouldn’t have fit between them.

He palmed her ass and picked her up, loving how perfectly she fit against him, how easily he maneuvered her petite form, how willingly she gave everything over to him. Even in moments such as this, when his passion held a rougher edge, she trusted him.

Hunger, the likes of which he’d never known, clawed at him. His cock throbbed. His hips began to thrust and grind, searching for hers.

Without breaking the kiss, he pinned her against the first wall they’d stumbled into.

Jade arched into him hard, her arms entwined so tightly around his neck she practically choked him as she fisted her hands in his hair.

Fuck yeah. He wanted her primal passion. This raw mating.

His body bolstered hers, freeing his hands. No gentle caresses. No teasing touches. He shoved his hands under her shirt, searching for those sweet tits. He growled in her mouth when he cupped the soft swells and felt her rigid nipples stabbing into his palms.

She rocked up every time he squeezed the flesh.

Passion heated her skin, filling his lungs with her scent, making him wild. He wanted the taste of her coating his tongue as he thrust into her. One hand twisted in her hair as he used the other hand relentlessly to tug her stiff nipples or stroke her clit.

“Tobin,” she said on a soft gasp when he broke the kiss to scrape his teeth down the side of her throat.

When he sucked on the hollow between her collarbone and her shoulder, she shuddered.