I chuckle softly. “Oh,I know.” I hold her stare for a beat longer than expected. “There’s something about this place that makes you wanna take everything home.”
My words aren’t lost on her. A casual but knowing smile curves her lips. “Exactly.”
I’m enjoying this way more than I expected to.
She catches me staring, her eyes narrowing with that teasing smile I’m starting to crave. “What?”
I shake my head, feeling my lips curl. “Just admiring you. That’s all.”
“Right,” she says, raising an eyebrow. “You're full of compliments, aren’t you?”
“When I mean them,” I tell her, walking a little closer as we make our way through the crowd. “You make everything seem... interesting.”
There’s a twitch in her cheek.
“Alright, let’s do this.” I stop her in the middle of the market.
“Do what?” She asks, wide-eyed, a little nervous at what might come next.
“Pull out your phone and let’s make this a good one.”
I nudge her toward the nearby food truck, where they’re slinging fresh tacos. A massive mural with vibrant colors covers the side of the vehicle. Perfect spot.
“I want to see if I solved your problem.”
Pulling her phone from her back pocket, she lifts it, searching for the perfect light. The moment her arm rises, I step in behind her instinctively, close enough for her to feel every inch of me. I press in, letting my body align with hers like we’ve done this before.
I shift our jackets to my other arm, freeing the closest. My hand finds her waist, fingers tracing the curve just above her jeans. Then lower. I hook my thumb, my knuckle grazing her skin just inside the waistband, slow enough to make her breath hitch.
Lace.
I tug the denim back just enough to see it with my own eyes. Black. And fuck me, it’s even smaller than I imagined.
Wordless, her body responds, arching into me with an unspoken invitation that makes my restraint stretch thin.
But I’m not finished.
I lower my head, my breath feathering the curve of her neck. She shudders enough to tell me she feels it. Feelsme. Her pulse kicks beneath skin so soft it makes my mouth water.
I bring my lips to the hollow below her ear, barely grazing it. Not a kiss—not yet—just a promise in the shape of a breath.
The shock crashes over her face in a wave. Her whole body stiffens for a fraction of a second, but then she melts, tilting her head to let me in deeper. Her pulse under my lips is a steady hum, matching my own.
Her phone snaps the shot just as I pull back, the ghost of a kiss still hanging in the charged air between us. She lowers the phone, like she’s forgotten what she’s holding, and turns her face toward me, eyes wide and dark with something that wasn’t there a second ago.
Those soft, parted lips—kiss-ready and stunned—make my thoughts go straight to places I’d die to explore in private. A blush blooms across her cheeks, as if her body’s betraying the effect I have on her before she can form words.
And fuck, if that isn’t the best thing I’ve seen all day.
I can’t resist a smile now. She stands there with a quiet, dreamlike glow.
Dropping her attention back to the phone in her hand, she begins typing, her fingers moving fast over the screen, and I can tell she’s trying to compose herself. A few seconds go by, and she glances up at me with a playful twinkle in her eyes.
“Tacos are surprisingly good,” I read over her shoulder. A small laugh escapes her lips as she taps ‘Post.’
I gaze at her, feeling the weight of what just happened hanging between us, but it’s not awkward.
It’s charged.Alive.
