They were outside, and the cool night, crickets playing a serenade all around them, the stars glimmering like candlelight through punched tin.
And he kissed like he didn’t want to do anything else in the whole world.
His mouth was firm, his movements leisurely. His tongue slid against hers, lazy and slow and delicious, as his hands went to her hips, held her fast while he pressed his body against hers, and let her feel the evidence of his desire.
She wanted him. She wanted this.
But they were outside, with an entire room full of people just on the other side of the wall he had her pinned against, and it couldn’t be anything more than this. At least not right now.
She couldn’t remember the last time she had kissed for the sake of it.
Maybe in the first couple of months that she and Aiden had dated each other, making out furiously in the back of hispickup truck, her nerves keeping them from going any farther, but not since then.
And she had already slept with Cody. The idea of making out with a man that she’d already had sex with seemed…
Wonderful.
He moved his hands slowly up her rib cage, just beneath her breasts, and she arched against him, her arms wrapped around his neck as he continued to explore her mouth.
He was thorough, in this as he was in everything.
How had she ever thought he was cold?
He was guarded, yes, but when he caught fire, he was molten. And he turned everything else into that same liquid flame.
Her heart was pounding rapidly, a pulse echoing between her thighs matching that same rhythm.
Then he moved his hands back down to her hips, his thumbs flexing, the sensation making her gasp.
“This is why I had to stay away from you,” he whispered against her ear. “My track record is terrible.”
“What about mine?” she asked, looking up at him.
“You’re not a whole lot better than me, but you didn’t instigate this.”
“I guess not.” She was trying to think of something else to say, but then she didn’t have to, because he kissed her again. Oh, she wanted to stay in this moment forever. It felt uncomplicated and glorious. She felt beautiful. Desired.
It didn’t feel big and scary, like the precipice of a cliff that led either to a whole new life or her doom, depending on whether or not she caught the wind and soared, or just plummeted to her demise.
It was safe, wrapped up in sensuality, and sensations she’d never before experienced.
Oh, she’d been turned on before, obviously.
She’d had orgasms before, clearly, but there wassomething about this. It was just different, and if she had years to try and untangle it, she didn’t think she would ever be able to explain it. It felt like balm for a wound in her soul she hadn’t even known was there.
One she still didn’t have a name for.
His mouth was hot, expert, moving from her lips to her cheek, her ear, down her neck, where he bit her, just slightly, sucking on her skin.
He might leave a mark behind, and even that excited her. It was the only thought about the future that she let herself have, and it was just about the idea of walking around marked by his passion. There was something about that.
Something about it that she liked.
A lot.
He pulled away from her again, breathing heavy. “I can’t stay out here. I have to… engage with this event.”
“Right,” she said, feeling drenched with a bucket of ice water also known as reality.
