Free Can't Let Go by A. P. Jensen

again and she shot up from the couch as she realized the easiness between them was gone.
    “I better get to bed. We’re heading back to New York tomorrow.”
    Mitchell got up and grabbed her arm, anchoring her. He tipped her chin up so she had no choice but to look into his eyes which she did defiantly.
    “What?”
    His hand spread over her cheek, mesmerized all over again by the texture of her. “I regret it every day. If I could do it over-”
    She pushed his hand away. “It doesn’t matter now. It’s over, we’re over.”
    “But we’re not over. We’re here right now. It’ll always be between us. I want to talk about it.”
    “No,” she placed her hand on his chest, pushed with no results. “I have to focus on Evie, on myself. I don’t have time for this.”
    “Let me be here for you,” he murmured. “Let me help.”
    “You have helped,” she said to his chest.
    He wrapped her up against him before she could react. Her face rested against his broad chest. His warmth engulfed her and the temptation to lean against him for just a moment was overwhelming but she grit her teeth and remained stiff and unyielding, refusing his comfort.
    “ Maybe we can be friends one day but the way you touch me isn’t right,” she mumbled into his chest.
    “You like the way I touch you,” he said, rocking her from side to side.
    “I hate the way you touch me. You act like I’m yours.”
    “You are mine.”
    “ Used to be. Not anymore.”
    He rubbed his cheek against the top of her head and her eyes drifted shut despite her best eff orts to rebuff him. His hands moved up and down her back, urging her closer. There was so much history between them, so much emotion that just for a second, she moved into him. They still fit. He shuddered against her. She could feel how much he wanted her. She was so damn tired of fighting him, seeing him, wanting him. Sex was sex wasn’t it? She could sleep with him and leave him.
    “I need you, Grace,” he said into her hair.
    “ You don’t.”
    “I do. What I said that day doesn’t change what we had between us.”
    She tilted her head back so she could look into his face. “It changed everything.”
    “I won’t stop.”
    “Why?” she whispered. “You’re too late.”
    “Say you don’t w ant me. Tell me you feel nothing when I’m near.”
    She searched dark eyes filled with need and knew she couldn’t. His presence during this week had been invaluable and she couldn’t stop the yearning that filled her every time she looked at him. She wished the things he said canceled out her need for him but being in such close proximity to him made the yearning almost unbearable.
    “None of this is real. We’re both exhausted and going through a lot of… stuff,” she murmured.
    He brushed her hair back from her face. “I’m tired but that doesn’t mean I’m not thinking straight.”
    She wanted to close her eyes, let him pet her but she didn’t. She pulled out of his arms and faced him with crossed arms. “As soon as you get back to New York Ray will come around and you’ll change your mind about me again.”
    His eyes narrowed. “You’ve been mentioning him a lot. Is there something you want to tell me ?”
    “No.”
    She tried to walk away but he stepped in front of her. It was his turn to cross his arms across his chest.
    “What does Ray have to do with us?”
    “Ray doesn’t like me.” That might be the biggest understatement she’d ever made in her life. Ray hated every breath she took. He despised everything about her, especially the fact that his blood ran through her veins.
    “ Ray’s overprotective,” Mitchell said dismissively.
    “Ray’s an ass,” she said succinctly.
    “He’s like a father to me.”
    “I wish I could say the same.”
    He narrowed his eyes. “Why are we even talking about Ray?”
    She was bringing up Ray to remind herself why she should stay away from Mitchell. He trusted Ray over everyone, including herself. And why