“Yes?”
Fan-fucking-tastic. Thisyessounded even needier than the first one.
He shifted his thumb over to swipe my bottom lip and I swayed.
“You are quite the conundrum.”
“I am?”
“Mm.” He pressed his nose to my temple and inhaled. “I have so many questions, but the only one I need the answer to right now is—can I kiss you?”
“Oh.” Fuck, his scent—faded cologne, trailer park dust, and him—was sending all of my systems through the goddamned roof. “Yes?”
“You don’t sound so sure. Do I need to back off?”
“Yes. I mean no.” A chuckle rumbled deep in his chest and I gave him my best glare. “I meant no, don’t back off and yes, please fucking kiss me.”
He stopped laughing, his expression suddenly as sober as a judge’s. He leaned in, brushing his lips against mine. I wanted more—so much more—but he pulled away from the barely-there kiss. Still holding my face in his hands, he nosed my eyelashes.
My chest rose and fell dramatically, and my heart was about to burst through my rib cage, but my brain had gone all smooth-like. No thoughts. No words. Just...him. Touching me like I was his and looking at me like I was a miracle.
He laid a trail of gentle kisses across my cheekbones before grazing the shell of my ear with his lips.
“Actually, let’s go with questions first,” he whispered.
I let out an involuntary groan, then pulled out of his hold and crossed my arms over my chest. He imitated the move with a smile that was at once maddening and the sexiest thing I’d ever seen in my life.
I refused on principle to ask for him to kiss me again, but God, he made me desperate.
“Question number one: Are you or are you not a dirty little liar?” he asked, sounding every bit the lawyer.
I opened my mouth, then closed it. Then got mad and opened it again. “No one is owed my sexuality.”
Hetsked, wiggling his finger at me. “There’s a difference between keeping quiet about something and actively lying, wouldn’t you agree?”
Did he just move in closer?
“So what?” I shot back, trying not to drown in the way his eyes held on to mine and wouldn’t let go. “So I lied. What of it?”
“Those lies led me to going faster than I should’ve. I scared you.”
“Hey!” I protested. “I wasn’t scared!”
His answering look shaved a year off my life. “You froze up like a statue.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not my fault you made all of those assumptions and tried to jump right intoworshipping this tight fucking hole,” I said, throwing his words back at him.
“Question two?—”
I let out a sound of protest. “This is not a court of law, counselor. And I did not sign up to be cross-examined.”
“A, I’m not that kind of lawyer, and B”—he leaned in with his arms still crossed—“you will answer my questions, or else.”
Kess’s words sent a shiver down my spine, but I wrangled myself.
“Or elsewhat?” I asked, standing toe to toe with him, forced by our proximity to tilt my head back.
His grin was fucking feral. And, now that I was this close to him, it didn’t help that his canines were just a hair longer than the rest of his teeth and that I had a minor vampire fetish.
