My heart wobbled when his chin angled down and strands of black hair dropped against his cheeks.
“How would you know?” I whispered.
“I just do.”
I felt weightless reclined in his arms. For once, the burden of carrying my own body was not mine to bear alone.
“I can pay you back,” I offered, still absorbing every detail of his handsome face.
“I don’t want your money.”
“Something else then,” I suggested.
Heat flared in the dark pools of his stare, and I understood why his eyes were the deepest of obsidian. Something formed from fire.
That scorching stare dropped to my lips and then flicked back up to my eyes, a silent question as the room pulsed with clear want. In response, I dropped my head back against his bicep, tipping my chin in invitation.
The arms around me tensed ever so slightly, and my heart went from beating to burning in my chest.
And as his lips descended, I went from belonging to only myself to belonging entirely to him.
CHAPTER
EIGHT
Ghost
I knew better, but there was a perilous line between knowing better and temptation. And for a man like me, danger wasn’t a deterrent but a saboteur daring me to take a risk.
Pairing that with eyes akin to the morning fog, ethereal and soft and looking at me like I hung the damn moon, the consequences of my actions didn’t even plead their case.
Maybe I knew it would be like this, and that was why I kept my distance. Something about him, this little pipgeek, got under my skin. But now I was here, and he was reclined in my lap. It didn’t matter that I was going to have to walk away if I took a piece of him with me.
I wasn’t gentle. I didn’t hesitate. He offered, and I claimed like fire finding oxygen. The immediate explosion of heat scorched us both. My hand reached up to cradle his jaw,pinning him exactly where I wanted, while our lips met in a fury of hunger and impatience and a dull buzz occupied my head. His lips were dry, likely from dehydration, but it didn’t deter me. Instead, I licked over them, dampening the soft flesh before settling deep again.
His whimper stoked my adrenaline, desire punching through my limbs. I gathered him closer, and his arms looped around my neck, chasing the kiss as if I might evaporate before he had his fill. Fingers curled into my hair, anchoring us together, and I changed direction, tasting him from a new angle. His tongue was a burst of sweetness in my bitter world, and I licked against it, thinking I could consume it all. Yet, no matter how deeply I kissed, he never ran out.
He squirmed impatiently, and I felt his nostrils flare, my own lungs echoing the need for air. The popping of our lips breaking apart echoed through the room, as did the heavy inhales of two people robbed of breath. With his fingers still knotted in my hair, our foreheads bumped, but then we were kissing again, his light whimpers and shaky exhales intoxicating me all over again.
When at last I lifted my head, my lips felt bruised and his were swollen. His skin was no longer pale but flushed a deep shade of pink. Those ethereal gray eyes were now a haze of silver, shimmering with a storm of desire. The uneven rise and fall of his chest sent a jolt of greed through me. The idea that anyone but me could affect him this much was enough to make me kill.
Pip collapsed as though it never occurred to him that I wouldn’t support his weight, eyes glinting through narrowed lashes.
“I think my fever just spiked,” he murmured, the corners of those strawberry lips curling up.
Remember those consequences that didn’t show up before?
Here they came, acting like they were gonna holler,I toldyou so!
I told them to back that ass up.
But even if I didn’t want to be read the riot act on behalf of myself, I did need to consider him. So sick he’d crawled into a box, so feverish he’d barely been conscious. It took so long for the fever to come down. I thought I was going to have to pull rank and take him to the hospital.
And what did I do the second he held a conversation longer than five minutes?
Devoured him.
I mean, don’t get me wrong. That kiss was top three for me.
