Page 36 of Vampire Pack

"Only if your goal is easy access to sexual satisfaction."

I nodded once. "Valid point."

Mallory smiled. "We can do a movie night, instead. Paige can make her candy popcorn, and we can gorge ourselves on buttery, salty chocolate until your extremely large problems fade from your mind."

"God, that sounds amazing."

"It's a date. I'll tell Paige."

Mal turned the stove off, so I grabbed a strainer for her, and gave her space to drain her pasta.

My extremely large problem chose that moment to step out of my room, carrying an extremely large duffel bag.

I met him at the end of the hallway. Mallory focused intently on her pasta, attempting to make it seem like we had privacy even though we definitely didn't.

"How much stuff did you take?" I asked, eyeing the bag.

"Everything that smells like you."

"That seems excessive."

"I don't care." He took my chin in his hand, tipping my face back a little. My heartbeat picked up a little, but I tried to ignore it. "I'm going to leave. I expect you to feed yourself, and rest your arm."

"You have high expectations. I was just going to watch a movie and eat candy-covered popcorn," I murmured.

His lips were so close to mine that I was worried speaking normally would make our mouths brush.

"That qualifies, as long as you don't use your sore arm."

"Do we have to be in this position for this conversation?"

"No. But we do for this." King lowered his lips to mine, and kissed me.

Lightly.

Gently.

Way too lightly, and way too gently.

We didn't kiss like that. Like it meant something. Like we meant something to each other.

It made me feel seriously off-balance.

He pulled away without deepening the kiss.

Somehow, that made the moment more intense.

"I'll be here in the morning to take you to your appointment," he said.

"Alright," I whispered.

"See you tomorrow, Gorgeous."

He kissed me again, just as lightly.

Then released my chin, and walked to the front door.

I didn't look away until a minute after the door shut, and found Mallory fanning her face when I did.