And, what?
The hunger and desperation mounting in his chest were so bad that he could feel himself losing control. Between the way she was reacting to him and the way she smelled, he didn’t have the slightest chance at pulling back. He was too far gone.
Tilting her face upward, he framed the sides of her face within his hands. Her startled gasp was the last thing he registered before his mouth slammed into hers. Their first kiss had been sweet and all too quick for his liking. He wanted more. Heneededmore.
This kiss exceeded those desires tenfold. The way it felt to be this connected to her should be criminal. She was moon and stardust. She was sweetness and spice. She was the whole package, and he’d been waiting far too long to get what he’d known he’d always wanted.
At first, she didn’t react to him, and he thought he’d made the biggest mistake of his life. He’d pushed her too far—and he was bound to scare her off. Noah nearly withdrew when her hands wrapped around his wrists tightly. Her fingernails dug into his skin with a desperation to match his own.
She wanted him.
Nothing could make him happier than he was in this moment.
Jane wanted him, and she wasn’t trying to hold back. Her hands dragged up his arms and settled around his neck as their desperate kisses continued. They were being consumed by a fire he’d underestimated existed between them, and it wasn’t going to burn out until they explored each other fully.
Her soft moans spurred him onward. His kisses left her lips and nipped along her jawline to her neck. Jane gasped but didn’trelease him. When he returned his attention to her mouth, their kiss shifted into something… different.
The desperation was missing, and in its place was a quiet curiosity. As if they both needed to discover something about their connection before they were willing to part. Noah was the first to pull back, but he didn’t go far. He pressed his forehead to hers and heaved a sated sigh.
“That was…” he murmured, his warm breath fanning between them.
“Yeah,” she whispered in agreement.
His eyes met hers, searching, as he pulled back. Her cheeks, nose, and mouth were tinged with a different kind of rosy. The scruff along his chin marked her as his own. Noah brushed the pad of his thumb along the irritated skin with a smirk. “If you didn’t know how I felt before, you know now.”
She released a laugh. It was genuine and free of restraint. It was the kind of laughter that could bring a man to his knees or have him laughing right along with her. “I know how you feel,” she whispered.
“And?” He hated the way his heart stammered at his own question. He didn’t want to have to guess if she kissed him back because she was high on the moment or if she felt the same. The euphoria was quickly slipping away, and he was already wondering if kissing her had been the right decision.
Jane lifted a shoulder. “And what?”
He threw his head back with a groan. Not this again.
Then her hands framed his face, and she yanked his eyes back to meet hers. “Noah, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel this… spark… between us.”
Noah nodded, waiting, holding his breath until she finished what she wanted to say. This could still go in so many directions.
Jane chewed on her lower lip. Her eyes never left his as she continued. “I care about you.”
He lifted a brow, stirring a laugh from her lips once more.
“I care about you…a lot.”
His smirk slowly returned to his face. This wasn’t the time to be smug, but he couldn’t help it. Noah leaned in and tapped her nose. “You like me.”
Jane rolled her eyes, dropping her hands to her sides, but before she could escape him, he snagged her around the waist.
“You like me,” he drawled. “Like,reallylike me.”
This time, she groaned before meeting his gaze. “Does this mean you’ll come to my father’s birthday?”
Noah cocked his head. “Hmm. I wouldn’t be much of a boyfriend if I didn’t.”
“I never said we were?—”
“Yes, you did. You said it a couple weeks ago.”
Her cheeks flushed, and she let out a giggle, no matter how hard she’d attempted to stifle it.
