“Even murder?” he asked, with a crooked smile.
“Possibly.”
He studied me in silence for a few seconds. “You don’t like vodka.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What makes you say that?”
He tapped his nose. “You wrinkled your nose when you saw the label.”
“Fine. Your turn.” I tried to sound breezy. It infuriated me how easily he could read me—like heknewme. Well, he didn’t.
Last time we’d sat here, there’d been mistrust between us. The air thick with the tension of two strangers who wanted the same thing. This time the tension was of a different nature.
He inhaled slowly, his shirt stretching tight across his chest, and I hated that I noticed. His whole Flynn Rider act had clearly worked on me.
“Queequeg misses you,” he said.
“Really?”
“You’re breaking the rules of the game by asking,” he said, half-scolding.
“It’s my game. I get to make the rules.”
He bit his lip. Damn him. He traced the rim of his glass with one finger.
Seconds passed.
We were either in a staring contest or time had officially stopped. I wasn’t sure which.
He took another breath, deeper this time, and when he finally spoke, his voice dropped an octave.
“If I were smarter, I wouldn’t do this.”
“Do what?” I asked, breath catching, because suddenly, the air in the room was made of molasses.
“This.”
John stood before I could even squeak out a protest. He crossed the room in two strides, cupped the back of my neck,and tilted my head up—just enough to toe the line between commanding and uncomfortable—and kissed me. Hard.
His teeth bumped against mine. He sucked my lip. His tongue demanded space before my brain even caught up. And the second I tasted him—vodka-laced and all John—every coherent thought dissolved.
Oh, god. He tasted like sin and temptation and something I’d been craving since the moment I left his bed.
“I shouldn’t do this,” he murmured between kisses, grazing my lower lip, trailing along the edge of my mouth. “But you’re driving me insane, Nora.”
I didn’t answer. Words? Never heard of them. Instead, I grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled him closer, deeper.
The floor creaked.
“Oh,” said a startled voice behind me.
We broke apart like we’d been scorched. I practicallyleaptaway from him.
Jeremy stood in the doorway, a glass of water in hand, eyes wide. “Am I…interrupting something?”
“No,” I said at the exact same moment John growled, “Yes.”
He hadn’t moved. Still braced over me, eyes still burning.
