Save Your Breath (Kings of the Ice, #4)

by Kandi Steiner

She wanted to hit me. I wanted to kiss her. That was how it had always been with us.

For a split second, we were both eighteen again. She was begging me to kiss her. I was begging her not to let me. I knew even then that we were wrong for each other. I knew even then that we’d break each other’s hearts if we ever tried to be more than friends.

Mia needed to drink to get through this, and I needed to sit on my fucking hands. Because she wanted to hit me, and I wanted to kiss her. And with the two of us forced to stay together for the night, I had no idea how the hell I was going to keep up the charade of anything I felt for this woman being fake.

I saluted with the snarky comment, ready to get the fuck out of this room and call my girl. My girl. I laughed at myself with that thought. Mia Love was far from mine, and yet she was the only person in the world I gave a single flying fuck about.

I held her tight, my arms wrapped full around her, nose buried in the scent of her wet hair. Her body was small and soft and pliable against mine, everything about her in that moment making me want to hide her away from the world. I wanted to hold her on the couch while we watched a movie. I wanted to rub her shoulders and run her a bath. I wanted to cook for her, and the fact that me offering that seemed so wild to her, that she didn’t believe anyone would want to take care of her without being paid to do so… it only made me want to do it more.

Fuck, I was so gone for her. The realization hit me as if it hadn’t always been a present fact in my life, as if my ignoring it for years could do anything to erase it. My brain seemed to chant a mocking duh as I reluctantly released my hold on Mia, separating enough for us to turn toward the person who’d interrupted us.

It was crazy how she could make a condo feel like a home just by walking through the door.

And her eyes particularly dazzled at the Steinway in the corner of my main living area, the seat of which faced the Hillsborough River. Could I ever tell her I bought that piano for her, just in case she ever came to see me, just in case she ever needed to play?

Tonight, I didn’t care if I wasn’t good enough. I wanted her so badly, I’d risk being her mistake.