“I am warm,” I protest, and Brandon’s gaze blatantly skirts the lines of goosebumps across my shivering limbs. He tips his head sideways at me.
“Okay?”
“Brandon,” I say, trying to still the hurricane of emotion in my gut, “I want to say thank you. For what you did back there.”
A warm smile curves his full lips. “No thanks needed.”
“But itisneeded. Because…I don’t think you know…I mean, what you said was…” I flap my hands. No word is precise enough, no adjective powerful enough to encapsulate what I’m feeling.
Brandon tips his head to the sky, eyelids squinting as he takes in the dark blanket of clouds. His tongue darts out to taste a rogue raindrop that landed on his lips, making my blood heat.
He said he didn’t want to kiss me unless it was real.
And it is so very, incredibly,unbelievablyreal for me.
I step so close to where he sits on the motorcycle that the wet silk plastered on my hip brushes his thigh. Slinging my arms around his neck, I pull him around to face me. His wet hair is the color of midnight, strands slicked to his confused brow. I smooth them away so I can meet his gaze. His eyes blow wide as he realizes my intent. I draw even closer.
“Kate, what are you?—”
But I silence his mouth with mine before I can chicken out.
I had intended for this kiss to be a question, a soft gauge to check his temperature on what feels like could be a hopeful, healing relationship.
Boy, was I wrong.
In an instant, something snaps between us. He molds his mouth against mine as torrents of electricity ripple from the epicenter of our lips. The kiss is sweet as champagne and every bit as bubbly, but sharp desire still begins to pool behind my navel. We’re soaked to the bone, and I can’t stop shivering, but I think I’d rather die than end this. Itangle my fingers in the saturated tendrils on the back of his neck, and a delicious sound emanates from the back of his throat. Our mouths fall into a familiar pattern, and things are just getting good when Brandon yanks away with a curse.
His firm hands untangle me from him, then he gently guides me a step back from the motorcycle. Every muscle in his face remains taut, but I can still see the want blazing behind his hard gaze.
“Go inside, Kate.”
I lift a finger to my kiss-swollen lips in disbelief. “I’m sorry, what?”
He scrapes a hand across his face, sending raindrops flying, and shakes his head as if to clear a punch. “I said, go inside, Kate.”
Indignant hurt rises like an angry swarm inside my chest. “Don’t tell me what to do, Brandon. And what is that supposed to mean?”
Brandon stomps on the kickstand, apparently abandoning any notion of storing the bike in the garage for the night. He unfurls to his full height off the motorcycle, jaw tight as he stares me down a few feet away.
I stare every bit as forcefully back.
“You can’t just…” He curses again, walking away a few strides before circling back. “You can’t just kiss me, Kate. I had one rule.Onerequest after agreeing to this whole crazy affair.” His green eyes look almost black in the darkness, despite the glowing house behind us. “You knew I wasn’t okay with kissing you unless it was real. Unless itmeantsomething to you. And last I checked, you were still very much insisting we needed to stay friends?—”
“Will you shut up?”
Brandon’s next word stalls on his breath before he says, “What?”
“Will. You,” I repeat, taking a step with each word. “Shut. Up?”
His eyes skim the silk sheath probably still glued to my body, but I don’t tear my eyes from him to check.
“I only shut up,” he says evenly, “when people have something to say.”
“Good,” I breathe, “because I just so happen to have something to say.”
His hard gaze stays trained on mine, but I detect a flash of humor in his expression.
“I kissed you, bunny ears,” I say sternly, and his lips twitch, “because I happen to have realized some veryrealfeelings for you. And for once, they’re not annoyance.”
