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He kept walking, but his head tilted toward me. “What?”
“I’m already somewhere I love because I’m with you.”
His feet made a scuffing sound against the sidewalk, and our bodies bounced forward with the force of his stop.
Everything in his hands banged onto the ground, and a few muffled curses floated around us as people had to abruptly change direction to avoid colliding with us where we stood.
The hands under my knees flexed, kneading against my body impatiently. “What did you just say?”
His tone was an abrasive scrape against his throat, the words harmless but inciting danger. Another hard squeeze at the backs of my knees, almost like a warning. If it had been anyone else, I probably would have panicked. Hell, it had happened earlier for far less.
But this was Ben. The only name my heart whispered. I wasn’t scared of him. It was literally not in my DNA. Excitement skittered along my nerves, crackling my senses with some unnamed emotion I did not recognize but reveled in just the same.
“Jessica,” he rasped, the first time I’d ever heard him say my full name.
And he said it like that. Another warning. No. A demand. Maybe a dare.
God, he’s delicious.
“I’m already somewhere I love because I’m with you,” I repeated.
His inhale was sharp, and his back inflated with it, pushing his body even closer against mine. I dropped my chin on his shoulder, my cheek nearly brushing his ear.
“You don’t know what you’re saying.” The words were hoarse. It was almost like he was trying to remind himself.
“I know the only minutes I’m not completely afraid are when you’re in my sight. I know that wearing my own clothes has felt so uncomfortably foreign today because, until this morning, I only remember wearing yours. I probably would have ripped them off by now if your scent didn’t linger in my hair from your bed. So yes, Ben, I know exactly what I’m saying. It doesn’t matter where we go because my favorite place will always be with you.”
“Whoa.” It wasn’t even a word but pure awe. It wrapped us in a bubble, muting the rest of the world, where it was just us and the only thing time measured was the distance between two hearts.
Reaching behind us, his hand fisted my jacket and pulled me around. One moment, I was against his back, and the next, I was in his arms, his mouth slanting over mine.
He kissed to claim. Aggressive and eager, covering my mouth until it was wholly owned by him. His lips were confident and caressing, moving against mine like he didn’t need a map because he already knew where he was going. There was nothing tentative about this, about the way he literally gobbled me down. He breathed in as he kissed as if he could suck out a piece of my soul. The sound it created made me feel like we were being sealed together, like he might actually murder anyone who dared to pull us apart.
I whimpered under the onslaught, slackening my jaw and letting my lips fall open. He groaned, invading my mouth and making me his captive. A captive who willingly gave herself over to the binds of his silky tongue.
I ceased to think, only registering the way our chests pressed together, how his hand flattened against my back to hold me in place while his other slid up my body and cupped my jaw. I became nothing but a living pulse hammering beneath his thumb as it bit into the hollow of my cheekbone, commanding me to stay open so he could take until he was full.
I would let him drain me. I would let him climb inside me and lick me dry. In that moment, the only reason I existed was to be everything he could need.
His lips gentled and changed direction to assault me from a new angle, and my fingers delved into the soft strands of his hair, holding him closer, giving him more. Wind blew around us, pushing my hair against our faces and binding us further together as he continued to lick and suck, hungrily slurping up everything he could reach.
Our mouths popped apart when he pulled his head away, his chest rising and falling with gasping breaths. His glittering two-toned eyes made me feel like I was being coveted by two different men who shared one heart.
I was dizzy. Unable to form a single coherent thought. I know I said I wanted a kiss. But that?
That was no kiss.
That was him hollowing out a home in my soul.
“Whoa,” I echoed his earlier sentiment, though it was woefully breathless. Hell. I might never breathe deeply again.
“You can’t say shit like that to me and expect me to hold back,” he said with a note of pained apology. “I’ve tried, final girl,” he lamented, eyes dropping to my well-kissed mouth. Swiping his thumb along my bottom lip, he whispered, “I tried. But I’m fucking starved.”
“Kiss me again.”
19
Kruger
