Something about the way he said her name made her open her eyes, recognizing all at once how his body pressed against hers, his chest to her chest, his mouth not even an inch away. Heat roared through Kylie’s belly, quickly turning to slick wetness in her panties, and even though it was insane, she lifted her chin to close the space between them. Devon exhaled against her mouth, but whether it was shock or something deeper, Kylie couldn’t be sure. Want like she’d never, ever felt flared to life in her blood, driving her to search, to take.
And she did.
Kylie reached out, wrapping her arms around the muscle-covered expanse of Devon’s shoulders. The leather from his jacket created just enough friction on her bare forearms to turn her want into a demand, and she didn’t hold back. Devon’s fingers flexed at the hinge of her jaw, his mouth resting on hers with just the barest brush of contact before he pressed against her harder with a groan.
Oh, God. Yes. Yes. Kylie swept her tongue over the seam of his lips in a bid for more, and all at once, he gave it. His mouth parted, but not to let her in. No, Devon’s lips slanted over hers with the clear intent to take, and he kissed her hard, desperate. Wild heat built between her legs, her pussy clenching with need beneath the damp satin of her panties. Digging her fingers into his hard, leather-clad shoulders, Kylie matched the intensity of the kiss, even as it grew along with her want. She moaned, parting her mouth, her thighs, her everything so Devon could kiss her, touch her, take her more fully.
But then she realized he’d stopped kissing her back.
Devon grated out a low curse, pushing himself back to the driver’s seat in one fluid motion. “Kylie. We can’t…I need to keep you safe.”
She blinked, her cheeks burning even though the rest of her chilled from the sudden non-contact of their bodies. “Oh! I, uh. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to?—”
“No. This is on me. Adrenaline can do crazy things. You’re not used to that, but I should’ve known better. It’s my job to know better. I overstepped.”
“I’m here too, you know.” Kylie pushed herself to sitting, her moxie slowly coming back online. “It takes two to tango, and all that.” Kissing him might’ve been impulsive, but she wasn’t about to deny having wanted it.
“Still. I was way out of line,” he said, his unshakeable demeanor falling right back into place as he swept the parking lot with one last glance before hitting the car’s automatic ignition button. “We’ve waited long enough to be safe for now, but we need to get moving now that you’re calmer.”
Kylie’s gut sank to her boots. Of course, he’d just been trying to calm her out of her panic-induced lather, nothing more. God, had she seriously been so jacked up on adrenaline that she’d tried to devour him like an all-you-can-eat buffet? She must be out of her freaking mind, not to mention a few other parts. “Right. Sure.”
He eased the car out of the gravel lot, doing the exact speed limit as he re-traced their path over the access road. But once again, Devon skipped the pleasantries of the highway, opting instead to turn onto a two-lane state route that, by the look of things, was a hell of a lot less traveled.
“Where are we going?” she asked, and the unyielding set of his jaw sent the tension winging right back into her shoulders.
“We’re going to get out of the immediate area, then find a place to rest and recon for a few hours. I need to get a plan into place.”
“A plan for what?”
Devon didn’t hesitate. “For keeping your brother off that plane.”
Okay, she couldn’t possibly be hearing right. “What? Why?”
“Because if Xavier Fagan knows enough about you to track you through the DMV, then by now, he knows who Kellan is, too.”
The thought of Fagan going after her brother turned Kylie’s stomach into a corkscrew. Still… “If anyone can take care of himself, it’s Kellan.”
“I know.” Devon’s gaze hardened as he lasered it through the windshield and into the predawn. “But if Kellan gets on that plane, he’ll lead this asshole to you like a homing beacon. We’ve got to take Plan B.”
Already, she hated the sound of this, but no way was she going to stay in the dark. “And Plan B is?”
“First, we’re going to figure out how to run the murder you witnessed up the right chain of command so we can take Fagan down. But you’re right. If we stay too long in one place, he has a better chance of finding us.”
“Okay,” Kylie said, trying like mad to process the thoughts flinging themselves around in her already overstuffed brain. “So, what does that mean, exactly?”
Devon turned, his copper-colored stare as fierce as it was determined. “It means Kellan’s going to figure out how to get you into protective custody, and then we’re going to nail this guy to the wall. In the meantime, since your brother can’t come to you, I’m going to take you to your brother. One state at a time.”
4
Devon stared at the highway, the dull gray ribbon of asphalt stretching as far as he could see. The darkness had faded a few hours ago, and Kylie right along with it, both seemingly out of the energy required to continue.
His hard-on, however, had picked up the slack in spades.
As if she could see him through her zzzzzs, he cut a quick glance at Kylie in the passenger seat, adjusting his dick to a less socially awkward position while mentally singing “99 Bottles of Knock It Off, Asshole.” She was in a metric fuckton of danger, not to mention being Kellan’s sister. The same sister the guy had flipped his goddamn lid over when Devon had called to brief him a couple hours ago on their run-in with Fagan. The same sister Devon had sworn to drive two thousand miles to safety.
The same sister he’d coaxed out of a panic attack by way of putting his tongue in her sweet, sexy mouth, and fuck, he really was a degenerate of the highest order.
Double fuck, a deep, dark part of him had wanted to do so much more than kiss her.
