Page 72 of Risk It All
Immediately, my arm went to wrap around her waist, pulling her into me as the door slammed shut. Our one kiss at Lake Ridge wasn’t nearly enough, and now that she was in front of me, I was eager for another. Her hands gripped my shirt, and her mouth found mine in a feverish kiss.
“So, youwereworried about me?” I murmured, smiling against her mouth.
“I wasn’t.” She pulled back with a sigh, still dazed from our kiss but with something clearly on her mind.
“Hey,” I said gently, cupping her head with my hands andbrushing her hair away. “What’s going on? What’s on your mind?”
“Maybe I was worried about you. But only a little bit.” Her voice was so quiet, sounded so unlike her, that I almost didn’t catch her words.
“That’s okay,” I whispered, resting my forehead against hers.
“I care about you,” she said, and my heart lurched. But as quickly as it jumped, it fell even faster. “As a friend, of course. I try not to show it too much, but I worry about the people in my life more than I probably should.” She pulled away, tipping her head to look up at me. Her hands stayed wrapped around my shirt, fiddling with the fabric. “Not always, but it’s little things that get me. Driving at night is one of them. I didn’t want anything to happen to you…and I also didn’t expect to be so worried. It…caught me off guard.”
“Were your parents driving at night?” I asked gently, my hand moving to the back of her neck. When she nodded, I pulled her into my arms. I rested my chin on the top of her head, holding her close. When she softened against my body, I took it as a sign that this was what she needed.
“It’s why it’s easier for me to keep things casual,” she continued, her voice slightly muffled. “And I know we’re casual, but then I got worried, and it kind of freaked me out.”
“You don’t have to worry, Eliza. Nothing’s going to happen to me.”
“You don’t know that.”
Ididknow, though. Because I would move mountains to get to her, to ensure she didn’t have to go through more pain. After the time we’d spent together, that was going to be true regardless of what we were to each other.
She stilled when I pressed a gentle kiss to the crown of her head.
“I’ll do everything in my power to make sure nothing happens to me, all right?”
She nodded, but after a beat of silence said, “It’s one of the reasons I can’t give you more. It needs to stay casual between us. It just…it needs to.”
Panic rattled her voice, something I hadn’t heard before. But with that panic also came a firmness I hadn’t expected.
While I’d agreed that we’d keep things casual, there was a small part of me that thoughtmaybeshe’d change her mind. Maybe she’d give the connection, the chemistry, between us a chance.
I didn’t think that anymore.
I hadn’t spent much time looking for my next step, but it was time to start. Because my time in Golden Falls, just like my time with Eliza, was temporary. I couldn’t live in denial, thinking that things would be different.
We’d continue seeing each other while I was here, and then we’d go our separate ways and move on. We’d done it once before. A lot had changed since then, but we’d done it.
“Lucky for you, Trouble, thingsarecasual between us.” I tried to be teasing in my words, not wanting my facade to crack. Because if Eliza got a hint that she’d been on my mind since the moment I saw her, she’d go running.
“Lucky me.” She looked up, the fire coming back to her eyes along with the tilt of her smile. She pressed a gentle kiss to the corner of my mouth. “It’s late. You should get some sleep.”
“I could say the same to you.”
Silence fell between us, the tension simmering in the air the way it always did when she was around.
“Or,” she said quietly, tugging her plump bottom lip between her teeth, “you could stay for a minute?” She slid her hand down my shirt, hooking her pinky with mine and tugging me toward the couch.
“A minute, huh? I hope it lasts longer than that.”
Her smile turned into a full-on grin, and she tipped her head back with a laugh. “It usually does.”
“Usually?” I scoffed, sitting on the couch and kicking my feet up on the coffee table. I wrapped an arm around Eliza as she settled next to me and grabbed one of the blankets to pull over our legs.
She ran her fingers over the mountain range I had on my forearm. “I still need to take you to one of my favorite spots in Golden Falls. Get you some inspiration for your next tattoo.”
“When are we going to do that?”
