I watch as her eyes glisten with moisture and her breathing gets shallow. I don’t care if I hurt her feelings. Shelby makes everything in my life difficult, and the sooner I scare her away, the better.

I expect her to keep quiet as I get off the lift and head toward my apartment, but she stops me in the hallway as she yells after me. “You turned your back on us, Rafe. We were supposed to trust you, and you turned your back on us.” The sweet tone of her voice is gone, replaced with the husky sound of oncoming tears, exhaustion, and anger.

But she’s picked a fight, and I don’t back down from a fight. Turning back, I point a finger right in her face. “No, Shelby. I turned my back on him. Not you.”

“He’s my family, Rafe!”

“Yeah, well you were mine.” The words spill out of my mouth on the adrenaline express. It’s been a long fucking day, and I cetainly didn’t mean to admit something like that, but neither did she because she’s staring at me with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open.

“But that was a long fucking time ago,” I growl as I turn toward my door.

“I thought you hated me…” she whispers, suddenly standing right behind me.

“Go to bed, Shelby.”

“After that kiss that night, you never spoke to me again. Why didn’t you say something?” she begs, while I’m fumbling with my goddamn keys again. I really needed to either stop locking it so I can get away from her quickly or get more organized with my keys because this shit just keeps happening.

“Will you fucking drop it?” I bark at her. The next thing I know the soft skin of her hand is on my arm and I snap. Spinning toward her, I knock her arm away and push her body against the door, trapping her and forcing her face even closer to mine. Her eyes are wide with fear which melts quickly to something else as I loosen my grip on her neck.

“Fuck,” I mumble, inching away. “I’m sorry...just don’t touch me, and please just fucking drop it.”

“I’m sorry,” she breathes, but my hand is still around her throat, a loose grip as I feel her pulse thrumming under my fingers. I realize the look in her eye, the one that’s no longer fear, is lust. Her full, pink lips are parted, and she’s staring at me through hooded lashes with her chest held out toward me.

It’s doing things to my head.

Our eyes remain locked, and when she licks her lips, I pick up every little sign like I’m a goddamn satellite tower. She’s not fighting me, and she sure as fuck doesn’t look scared of me anymore. Like putty in my hands, I realize she’s mine to play with. She wants to get into my head. It’s my turn to get into hers.

Shelby

A moment ago, he had my body slammed up against this door like I was under arrest, and at the moment, I’d let him cuff me if he wanted to. Maybe it’s the current dry spell I’m under or maybe it’s all the intensity between us, but my body is blazing hot under his touch.