“I am,” he said without hesitation. “So we’re just going to get some privacy for a minute.”
“What do we need privacy for? Panicking?”
He tugged me to a stop once we were around the side of the building, the brick wall rough against my shoulders. “Practicing.”
“Practicing what?”
His gaze lowered to my lips, his voice dropping to that low register that always sounded like both a promise and a warning. “You know what.”
My stomach flipped over itself like it was a gymnast at the Olympics.
And…no.No. Absolutely the fuck not.
I was not going to go allswoonyfor Lincoln Steele. The man who probably practiced smoldering in the mirror every day just to stay on top of his game.
With a snort, I rolled my eyes. “It figures you’d drag me back here just to get a kiss. Afraid everyone will laugh at you when your attempt to woo me fails?”
He didn’t even dignify my accusation with a response, and his smug little grin only grew wider. “You don’t really want our first kiss to be in front of a bunch of strangers, do you?”
“I don’t want to have a first kiss at all!”
“Sorry, wife.” He didn’t sound sorry in the slightest, actually. “Pretty sure that’s mandatory for our little joint felony.”
The thought of kissing him should’ve sent me straight into dry-heaving territory. But for one traitorous second, I wasn’t focused on keeping my lunch down. Instead, my gaze dropped to his lips, and I wondered how soft they were. What he tasted like. If he kissed like he argued—cocky, relentless, and annoyingly effective.
“C’mon,” he said, just a low rumble. “I bet I could make you forget why you’re nervous.”
“Please.” I huffed out a breath and glanced away from him to give my body a chance to regulate itself and stop this nonsense. “You couldn’t make me forget my grocery list.”
He took a single step closer. Not yet touching me, just hovering in that irritatingly magnetic way of his. “That sounds like a challenge.”
“It’s not a challenge,” I snapped. “It’s just a fact. There is literally nothing you could do right now to help.”
He glanced down at me, his gaze focused on my mouth as he licked a slow, entrancing path across his bottom lip. “Give me the green light, Willa.”
My palms were suddenly sweaty and my heartbeat tripled and my breath grew shallow as he surrounded me with all his…his…presence.
God.God.
What in the ever-loving hell was this jackass doing to me?
He’d somehow snared me. I didn’t know if it was that infectious twinkle in his eyes or the confident curve of his mouth or the bulk of his body right up against mine that made me want to crawl out of my skin. Or if it was how he smelled, all ocean air and warmth andman, but I was dangerously close to leaning in.
God help me, I was leaning in.
“Fine,” I muttered. I was going to regret this. I wassogoing to regret this. “You have the green light. But only because I love proving you wrong.”
That confident curve of his mouth turned positively lethal as he closed the scant distance between us. “Whatever you need to tell yourself, hellcat.”
He towered over me, the heat from his body seeping into mine and sending a shiver skating through me. Everything in me went still. Everything except my heart, which had apparently decided now—with my nemesis close enough that I could see the specks of gold in his eyes—was the perfect time to stage a rebellion and damn near beat out of my chest.
With two fingers under my chin, Lincoln tipped my head back and stared down at me. His breaths ghosted over my skin, his thumb dragging across my lower lip as if he was trying to memorize its size and shape, andJesus. My knees were already weak, and an incessant—and, quite frankly, irritating—throb was beating between my thighs like a drum.
And he hadn’t even touched me yet. Not really.
I curled my hands into fists at my sides just to stop myself from gripping him in order to hold myself up. I wasfine. Totally and completely fine. I wasn’t losing my shit at his nearness. Not at all. What had me losing my shit was all this waiting.
“Would you just kiss me already, jackass?” I snapped, tired of fucking around and wanting to get this over with.
