“You’re going to play coy with me, Bri?” Ivy snorted. “You and I need to talk about how you’ve been working with the Prince.”
“Uh.” I looked over at Caden. He didn’t seem to be paying attention. “Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay. See you in a bit.”
I slipped my phone back into the clutch, unsure of what I was going to tell Ivy when I wasn’t even sure I knew what I was doing—what we were doing.
“Is everything all right?”
I nodded. “Yeah, Ivy and Ren are almost back in the city. They’ll be there. I guess your brother is with them.”
“Perfect.”
And after that, Caden didn’t really speak and even though there was a ton of stuff I wanted to talk about, likeeverything, right now didn’t seem like the… appropriate time. The curiousthing about this trip was the fact that Caden didn’t need to ask directions to my house.
“Do I want to know how you know where I live?” I asked as we pulled up to the curb outside my house.
He slid me a long look as he turned off the ignition.
“All right,” I sighed, opening the door. “Probably don’t want to know.”
Stepping out of the SUV, I crossed the sidewalk and opened the gate. I took one step and Caden was suddenly in front of me. Cursing under my breath, I shook my head. “You’re going to give me a heart attack if you keep doing that.”
Caden didn’t respond to that as he took my face in his hands, cupping my cheeks. He stepped into me as he tilted my head back. My gaze flew to his. “Is… is everything okay?”
Instead of answering, he lowered his mouth to mine, stopping a fraction of an inch from making contact. Was he going to kiss me? My breath caught. His forehead brushed mine and then his lips touched mine.
The kiss….
There was nothing sweet or soft about it, not like most first kisses were. Oh no, this was fierce and powerful, consuming in the intensity. My lips parted as the tip of his tongue touched mine, and the entire world seemed to slip away. When he finally lifted his mouth from mine, there was a swelling motion in my chest, like I had just taken my first real breath of air.
Caden had kissed me like it was our first and our last.
His fingertips slipped off my cheeks as he stepped back and to the side, and as my gaze focused, I saw that my front door was open. Tink stood there—full-sized Tink. It was always jarring to see him at his full height and wing-less, which was almost the size of Caden.
“Let’s head inside.” Caden touched the small of my back.
More than just a little out of it, I nodded and walked forward. The closer I got, I could see how wide Tink’s blue eyes were. I expected him to say something funny. Call me a hussy or point out that I was just making out with Caden in the front yard, but he didn’t say anything. He was staring at Caden like he’d never seen him before.
Tink stepped back into the foyer as we climbed the steps and he didn’t speak until we were inside my house, the door closed behind us.
Tink looked like he was about to faint as he stared at Caden. “Should I… should I bow?”
I frowned at him.
Caden shook his head. “No.”
I had no idea what any of that was about. “I’m just going to get changed real quick. Make yourself comfortable.”
Caden nodded as I hurried to the stairs and when Tink started to follow, he stopped him. “Can we talk for a moment?”
Figuring it was about what happened, I raced up the steps, nearly tripping to my death over Dixon, who sprawled out on the top step. “God,” I gasped. “Really?”
Dixon lifted his furry head and meowed loudly as he stretched out his legs lazily. Rolling my eyes, I stepped over the cat and hurried to my bedroom, prepared to strip and scrub my face so fast I’d break records, but as soon as I stepped into my bedroom, I came to a complete stop. Raising my hand, I pressed my fingers to lips that felt swollen.
I… I was feeling some pretty silly stuff. Perhaps it was everything that had happened in the last week causing me to think and feel like I…. Goodness, I didn’t even know.
But instead of obsessing over Aric, over what he’d taken part in, I was wondering if… you could fall in love with just one kiss?
