“You’re leaving,” he said stubbornly.

“And?”

His jaw clenched in that adorably annoyed way of his. “And I don’t want to ruin you.”

“Ruin me? Good lord, man, have you had your ears cleaned? I’m not a virgin.”

“Jesus, Remi!” He threw a glance over his shoulder and towed her into the alleyway between buildings away from the spring foot traffic. He kicked the decorative gate shut behind them and deposited her against the cool stone of the building. “If I let myself touch you? If I let myself go? Neither of us would survive.”

“Well, somebody ate a bowl of Humble Flakes for breakfast this morning. Your chivalry is so admirable,” she snapped.

“You and your goddamn smart mouth.”

“Go ahead. Teach me a lesson,” she taunted.

He leaned in until their foreheads touched. She wished she could bottle the smell of him. She’d call it First Crush and make a billion dollars.

“Remi, baby, if you knew one-tenth of the things I’ve thought about doing, you’d run away and never look back.”

Her heart was hammering in her chest as adrenaline and lust released into her bloodstream. “I don’t run, Brick.” No one had ever made her feel like he did. And deep down in some secret part, she was worried no one ever would.

“You better fucking start now.” His voice was barely a rasp.

“If I reached under that belt right now, what would I find?” To drive her point home, she curled her fingertips into the waistband of his jeans.

He squeezed his eyes shut and hissed. “Jesus.”

“No use praying for help. Jesus isn’t worried about your dick, Brick.”

“I’m not touching you.” He gritted out the words like a rusty mantra.

“What if I touch you?” she whispered. She’d lost the thread of the fight. Lost the point she was trying to make. She skated her fingers over the buckle and listened to the intake of his breath. “Do you want me to? If you do, you have to say it. You can’t just hope it’ll happen. You need to say the words.”

She watched his face change as he looked down at her, something like pain in his eyes. Oh, God. He was going to walk away. He was going to stroll down the sidewalk and leave her with wet panties and a broken heart. And she was going to have to make it her life’s mission to torture the man for the rest of his earthly years.

Cool, rough stone at her back. Hot, hard Brick at her front. It was her new favorite place to be.

His gaze dipped to her chest where the material gaped, and he clenched his jaw so hard his cheeks hollowed.

Very deliberately, he placed a hand on either side of her head. She could see the war waging behind his eyes. Want and need with right and wrong. He wanted her. The extra-large bulge behind that soft denim told her that. But he was fighting it like she was poison.