I settle in next to Jamie and find him shivering. Despite my thin shirt, I’m a touch warm. I wrap my arm around his shoulders, and he stills.
“Thank you.”
“I don’t like the sound of your teeth chattering.”
He turns under my arm and looks up at me. “I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t be taking these statements at face value.”
I laugh. “Of course not. Were you?”
Jamie squirms. “Maybe.”
“Oh, you pretty little idiot.” I angle Jamie’s chin towards me again and pull him in.
Our breaths mingle in the space between us, filling my senses with vanilla and jasmine. As I find his lips with mine, his warm sigh washes over me. A sweep of my tongue is all it takes for his mouth to open, parting for me.
I taste him, keeping the beast in such a tight chokehold that it’s silent.
His moan comes fast and deep, and I press further in. If his heart is a hummingbird, rapid and light, mine is a drumbeat. It gets faster, louder, heralds violence.
When I pull away, Jamie follows me, hands reaching for the bare skin beneath my cropped shirt.
I grip his upper arms and hold him in place. “We can’t do that here,” I murmur.
“Why not?” His eyes plead.
“Because you don’t have anywhere to go.”
“I don’t want to go anywhere.”
“You might change your mind.”
“I won’t,” he whispers, leaning against my grip.
I brush a kiss against his chin, his temple. “You need to be able to change your mind. I practically have you cornered out here.”
Jamie’s eyelids flutter, his chest shaking under my hands.
Fuck.
I force my voice to be even, measured. “If you’re not going to change your mind, then you’ll feel the same way later, won’t you?”
“But what ifyoudon’t?” Jamie murmurs.
I lean in, nip his ear. “I don’t change my mind,” I purr.
He shivers in my hands. Shit, I’m getting off on this. Good thing I get off on denial too.
“Relax,” I command, settling Jamie back under my arm.“Enjoy the view.”
His muscles softening against me is gratifying in a primal way I can’t quite describe.
Gia is right. I’m balancing a treat on my nose.
I rest my cheek against the top of Jamie’s head.
If I’m honest with myself, I don’t want to rush this. Jamie is the sort of person who deserves to be savored.
His scent shifts slightly, and there’s a deeper note there. Cloves and allspice.
