“Why New York?”

Her fingers lifted to her throat nervously before dropping to her side once more as she backed up. “What?”

“Why New York?” he asked again, continuing to walk toward her. “All the places in the country, in the world, and you chose to get your fresh start here.”

“I’m hardly the first person to have done so,” she said impatiently. “It’s New York. It’s what people do.”

“That’s not an answer,” he said softly, as her back bumped the wall behind her. Slowly he lifted an arm, resting his forearm just above her head as he crowded her. “Why. New. York?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Emma, I guess.”

“I think you’re lying,” he said, his other hand coming up to rest gently against her neck, his eyes tracking the movement of his thumb along her jaw.

“All right, I’ll play,” she said. “Why do you think I came to New York?”

Lincoln’s eyes flicked up to hers. “I think you came for this.”

And then, for the first time in nearly three years, Lincoln dipped his head and kissed a woman like he meant it.

Chapter 27

Daisy’s mind went blank at the touch of his mouth on hers, only to be filled a half second later with more emotions that she even knew how to register.

Among the top contenders?

Shock.

Happiness.

And a lust so acute she thought she’d die from it.

It was the last she decided to go with.

The kiss was both demanding and gentle, as though he desperately wanted her to need it but was prepared to back off if she didn’t. She felt his restraint in the way he held his body back from hers, even as she felt the command of his mouth.

Daisy’s hands lifted to the front of his shirt, fingers digging in and pulling him forward. She needed him.

Take, she silently commanded.

He did. The second he had her answer, Lincoln groaned against her mouth, leaning all the way into her as the arm above her head slid down around her waist, his palm hot and insistent against her back. His lips nudged hers apart, his tongue claiming the inside of her mouth as though every part of her was his.

Daisy was already his, maybe had been since the very first night.

She couldn’t seem to get close enough, her arms winding around his neck, holding him as close as she could get him, terrified that he’d change his mind.

Lincoln slid his hands up to her hair, tugging her head back gently so he plundered her mouth before gentling slightly, his mouth moving along her jaw.

A little gasp escaped from her as his teeth nipped her earlobe, the gasp turning into a full-on moan as his mouth opened warm and wet over the sensitive skin of her neck.

His hands slipped under her shirt, his palms hot on her bare waist as his breath came in labored pants against her neck.

“I should go,” he said in a harsh rasp.

Daisy’s arms tightened reflexively around him. “Why?”

“Because if I stay, I’m going to take you to bed, and I should at least take you on a date first.”

“We’ve been on lots of dates,” she said, running her hands down his back. “We just didn’t call them that.”

He let out a little laugh. “I don’t think you fully understand, Wallflower. I haven’t been with a woman since before Katie’s accident. I won’t be gentle. I don’t think I’m capable of it.”

“I don’t want gentle,” Daisy said, even as she mentally did the math on how long it had been. Three years. He hadn’t touched any woman since then. Her heart rejoiced.

“You deserve it,” he said, laying a hand along her cheek and gazing down at her with so much intensity she burned from the inside out. “After what you’ve been through with your ex…I see the way you shy away from men, the way you hold yourself apart—”

She lifted her hands, skimmed her fingertips over his perfect cheekbones. “I’ve been cautious, yes. And it takes me a bit longer to feel safe around men, true. Perhaps that will always be the case. But I’m not afraid of you, Lincoln. I never have been.”

“Daisy—”

“I want you,” she said, going for simple and straightforward. “I want your hands on me, I want you gentle, rough, desperate, because I’m feeling all those things. I’ve been feeling them.”

He swore softly, his forehead resting on hers, and she could feel him warring with himself.

Damn stubborn man.

Daisy would stop short of pleading, but she would fight.

She pushed him back, firmly, purposely. “You said you came over to apologize for the way you left me that last night in Charlotte.”

Lincoln pulled back slightly and nodded, even with narrowed eyes.

She went on her toes, pressed her lips softly to his. “Don’t make the same mistake twice. Don’t leave.”

“Wallflower, you don’t know what you’re asking.”

In response, she took his hand, and walking backward, led him toward her bedroom. If her living room was a bit bare, her bedroom was even more so, but he didn’t seem to notice.

It had a bed, and that was all that mattered.

She saw the indecision on his face—the gentleman warring with the man—and decided to make it easy. Daisy shrugged off the cardigan and tossed it aside before holding his gaze and peeling the tank top up and over her head.

He groaned as his eyes darkened to a midnight blue, and Daisy slowly backed toward the bed, pausing when the back of her knees hit it, before nonchalantly peeling off the shorts.