HARD RULES EXCERPT #3

His hand curls around mine and he drags it to his knee, and the way he’s looking at me, like the rest of the room, no, the rest of the world, doesn’t exist, steals my breath. I haven’t allowed anyone to really look at me in a very long time.

“Emily,” he says, doing whatever he does to turn my name into a sin that seduces rather than destroys me.

“Shane,” I manage, but just barely.

“Did you say yes to dinner because you didn’t want to be alone?”

I am not sure where he is going with this,...