He took a step back and then another, and panic set in.
The small, still probably sober, logical part of my brain screamed at me that he was being a gentleman. and I should be happy he respects me enough. But the larger part—the very much drunk and emotionally wrecked part of me roared that if he left without kissing me—without dousing the flame of want and need burning inside of me, I could combust.
So as he took another step away, I launched myself at him, the voyeurs be damned. He caught me as I reached up, pulled his face towards mine, and kissed him.
I needed this.
I needed to be reminded that there are good things, and I needed to remember what being wanted felt like.
Lukas didn’t hesitate, despite his wholeI won’t kiss you while you’re drunkspeech. His lips were warm and firm against mine. It took only a few seconds for him to take over, his hands cupping the sides of my face—tilting my head back to deepen the kiss.
My hands were trapped between us, still gripping his shirt. I knew there was no chance in hell that I would forget this—the feel of him, the touch of his hands, the press of his body against mine. And for a single moment, my brain flew back to the last time someone held me like this, and there was nothing—no guilt, no remorse, not even anger.
His hands moved from my face, and his arms wrapped around me, trapping me while he devoured me. The room fadedas I melted into him. Nothing else mattered — nothing that came before, nothing that might come after. He kissed like he wanted to own, to possess and I wanted nothing more than to let someone take over, take ownership.
His tongue pressed against mine, tasting…taking. It swept over every inch of my mouth and I couldn’t get enough. Asher had been tame compared to this—his kisses had been sweet, reassuring. Never had I felt like I was going to suffocate, and do so gladly. Never had I felt his touch through my whole body.
I’d been naïve, a young girl in love, believing the boy could never hurt me.
Lukas broke the kiss, and I sucked in air, already missing the feel of his lips on mine. One of his hands skated up my body—leaving a trail of fire from my hip to my shoulder, and he gripped my jaw. His fingers sliding around the back of my neck, his thumb lightly pulling on my lower lip and heat pooled low in my belly and further still. His eyes were half lidded, molten chocolate pools as he stared at my mouth.
I wasn’t sure if he realized he licked his own lip as he stared, as his thumb brushed lightly over my swollen ones. I wasn’t sure I was breathing until his thumb tugged ever so slightly and a gasp fell from my mouth. I was watching him, as he was watching my lips and I wanted him to kiss me again. My hands were still fisted in his shirt—probably forever wrinkling it, but I couldn’t bring myself to let go. It felt like if I did, the moment would be over and I would never get it back.
Someone cleared their throat, and we both startled. My hands let go on pure instinct, and Lukas backed up a few steps putting space between us.
“So, forget the book—let me just follow the two of you around while you fall in love.”
Embarrassed heat suffused every part of my body as I turned to look at Eloise and Annalise who were sitting on the couch, staring with shit eating grins on their faces.
“I’m going to have to teach Orion how to kiss like that, because holy fucking shit,” Annalise said.
She turned and looked at Eloise. “Is it possible to get pregnant from watching a kiss?”
“Beforethat, I would have said no. I need to teach Cami as well, because I want that.”
I covered my face with my hands and wished that a hole would open up below me and swallow me whole. I felt Lukas’s hand on my arm, gently trying to pull my hands away. I shook my head and prayed that I would disappear. I was drunk, but apparently not drunk enough.
“Did you see how he kissed her?” Annalise shouted through a whisper.
“The way he looked at her after—that thumb thing with her lip…” Eloise said.
I wanted to actually die. I hated my friends. They sucked. So much. I don’t know why I never realized it before, but they were terrible, terrible people. Lukas chuckled as he managed to pry my hands away from my face.
“I think you need to confiscate your friends’ romance books,” he said.
“Oh, I plan to burn them all when I get home.”
Eloise squawked—that was the only description I could come up with, for the noise that escaped her mouth. “Aimee Marie Bryant, you will do no such thing.”
I opened my mouth to throw back a retort that was still loading in my brain, when Lukas kissed me again and every thought ceased existing in my head and I melted into him. My hands weren’t clenched in the fabric of his shirt this time, so they fell about his shoulders and my fingers found themselvespushing through the soft hair at the nape of his neck. His arms came around my waist, and up my back pressing me to him, and I was gone.
This kiss didn’t last nearly as long, but it left me blissfully unaware. He chuckled again, kissed my nose and somehow I was deposited on the couch next to my nosey as shit friends.
“I’ll text you in the morning. I promised to take you skiing, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
I just kind of stared at him blankly, my brain still hazy from the second kiss, which somehow was better than the first one, and if he always kissed me like that—no, he needed to always kiss me like that. This might be a problem. I was going to be needy if he kept kissing me like that.
“You’re just going to leave her?” Eloise asked incredulously.
