Chapter 27

Sunday morning - Luke

I'm in such big trouble.

The thought spun over and over in my mind as I watched Ellie sleep on the flight back to Nashville. I liked her. I liked her a lot. And that was the problem. I was still me. And she was still Meg's best friend. The one who was looking for a future husband. Not Mr. Temporary Good Time Guy. Whose idea had it been to keep kissing anyway? Last night I would have given my right arm to take her to bed.

But that was just it. We'd agreed to kissing. Just kissing. Kissing was fun. Light. Friendly. Sex was different. Sex would complicate things.

Only even as I told myself that, I knew it was a lie. There was nothing "friendly" about the way Ellie and I had been kissing last night. The only good thing about having a broken arm was that it was probably contributing to our keeping things PG-13. If both of my arms had been working last night, there was a damn good chance I would have grabbed her ass, picked her up while her legs were wrapped around my waist, and taken her directly to my bed.

It was difficult enough to keep things from going further on the couch. When she'd pulled off her sweater? Sweet Jesus. It had taken every ounce of strength I had not to push up her skirt, rip off her panties, and slide into her. Right there on the couch. Real classy. Damn it. Who was I kidding? Even without sex, this whole thing had already gotten complicated. Really complicated.

Hell, it had been complicated from the moment it started.

The good news was that when I was with Ellie, I wasn't worried about being out in public. In fact, last night, I'd only been bothered at the thought that the paparazzi would bother her. I hadn't been worried for myself. Something about being in her presence made me only interested in taking care of her. I didn't focus on myself. It was a novel feeling.

"What am I going to do about you?" I whispered to Ellie's sleeping form. It was obvious after last night that if we kept up the kissing, we'd end up in bed. And honestly, I didn't want that. Well, I wanted it. But I knew I couldn't take it there. Because even if I made it really clear to Ellie that a good time was just a good time, I knew I couldn't live with myself if that good time ended up hurting her in the long run. If she ended up wanting more.

I already knew the answer to my own question. What was I going to do with her? I needed to start putting a little distance between us. It would be for the best…for both of us. The kissing had been fun. Hell, it had been phenomenal. But the reason we'd kept it casual was for this very reason. When the time came to stop, no one would get hurt.

I scrubbed my right hand across my face and groaned. It wasn't going to be easy. But I needed to stop kissing Ellie. Immediately.

I would be doing her a big favor.

And if I just kept telling myself that, I just might believe it.