Hot Mess Read Online Free PDF Page B

Texas, Sam. I can’t—”
    His fingers caressed her skin again and she found herself wanting to lean into him, wanting him to keep touching her until the sadness went away. How could her body light up when he touched her even though she was feeling so many other things right now?
    “I’m not sending you to Texas. I’m not letting you out of my sight. You’re coming with me, and we’re going to a safe house in Maryland.”
    “You won’t leave me?”
    His smile was tender, reassuring. “No, I won’t leave you.”
    She looked down at her lap, unable to meet the intensity of his gaze a moment longer. “All right.”
    His hand dropped away, and she found herself wanting to cry out, wanting to ask him not to stop.
    “Good. I’m sorry about Sergeant Hamilton, Georgie. But I won’t let anything happen to you. You can count on that.”
    “I know it.” Impulsively, she reached out and ran her palm along his jaw. She’d been aching to touch him. His eyes darkened, becoming hot pools she wanted to drown in. “I trust you, Sam. Completely.”
    He caught her hand and pulled it away from his skin. “You can trust me with your life, Georgie. But don’t make the mistake of thinking you can trust me with anything else. I’m not that good, believe me.”
    * * *
    The car ride was silent. Or would have been if not for the incessant meowing of Georgie’s cat.
    “You know something, Sam?” Georgie said, and he started at the sound of her voice breaking into his thoughts when the cat had almost become white noise to him.
    He shot her a glance. “What?”
    “Maybe I don’t want you to be good. Maybe I want you to be as bad as you can be.”
    Sam gripped the wheel of his truck and stared straight ahead. Jesus. “Don’t say shit like that to me, Georgie. You know I’m not going there.”
    She snorted. “Boy, do I.”
    “Georgie—”
    “No, don’t you Georgie me. When you stopped that night…” He could feel her looking at him, her eyes boring an angry hole into him. He told himself she was reacting to everything that had happened to her today and taking it out on him. This wasn’t really about something that had happened twelve years ago. It was just a convenient catalyst.
    “When you stopped that night, I thought there was something wrong with me. I thought I wasn’t sexy enough or special enough for you. And that hurt.”
    “Of course you were,” he bit out. “But you’re Rick’s little sister and I was the wrong guy for a lot of reasons. I stopped because you were special.”
    “You were the one I wanted.”
    He swallowed hard. “I couldn’t do it, Georgie. I couldn’t do it and look Rick in the eye ever again. Or your parents.”
    She didn’t say anything for a long moment. “You know who was my first?”
    “Goddamn it, I don’t want to know.” His voice snapped in the interior of the car. Even the cat went silent. Sam closed his eyes. He did not lose his temper. Not ever. But she made him forget all the vows he’d ever sworn to himself.
    Georgie folded her arms over her chest. “Fine. But you know what you need to remember right now? Here it is, so put it front and center in that brain of yours and keep it there. I’m not your sister, and I’m not a kid anymore.”
    Sam sat there in stony silence, uncertain what in the hell he could possibly say. No, she wasn’t his sister. But it was safer for him if he thought of her that way. He wanted to keep her in a safe place in his head, but in the space of a conversation she’d gone and thrown her grappling hook over the walls he’d erected and torn them right down.
    She thought he had trouble remembering she wasn’t a kid anymore. No, what he had trouble remembering was that he was no good for her. Because damn if he didn’t want her. He wanted her every possible way he could have her.
    But she wasn’t his for the taking. She was too good for the likes of him. Even if he wanted something more than a few nights of sex with her—and he in no