My breath caught. “Now?”
“I can check my agenda for a better time.”
His eyes flicked to my lips, and I couldfeelthe heat blooming low in my belly. That dangerous creature inside me stirred.
“Fine. One kiss,” I said. “And then this weird tension? Gone.”
I closed the distance slowly, placing my hands on his chest. His breath hitched beneath my palms.
“Absolutely,” he said.
He pulled his hands from his pockets, dragging them up my sides with unbearable patience. The heat of his palms burned right through my leather jacket.
I tilted my head—he was so damn tall—and his hands suddenly tightened on my back, pulling me flush against him. Soft bits to hard bits. My head spun with dizzying want.
My fingers slipped behind his neck, threading into his dark locks. I rose on my tiptoes and angled his head toward mine. He didn’t resist. Every inch felt like a line crossed, irreversible.
Our noses brushed, giving the other time to pull away.
But neither of us did.
Then his lips met mine—warm, deliberate, grounding and unraveling me all at once. We both let out a soft breath, a sigh, like we’d been holding it in forever.
His stubble scraped my cheek in the most delicious way. His hands gripped the back of my jacket tight enough to nearly liftme off the ground. His taste. His scent. The overwhelming sense of him?—
It blurred the edges of me.
I couldn’t tell where I ended and he began.
And Iknew—deep in my bones—that I’d never get enough of this.
Fuck.
I wrapped my other hand around John’s neck as his mouth parted wider—our tongues meeting in greedy pushes and long, hungry strokes. My body felt untethered, floating as want built with every passing second. John groaned into the kiss, sinking deeper. I wanted to feel all of him.
We stumbled backward into the dark.
A moment later, my back hit the door—John had shoved it closed. His palm rested beside my head. The other gripped a fistful of my hair, holding me in place. I leaned in, chasing his mouth, but his fingers tightened at the base of my skull. A gasp tore from my lips at the sensation. My knees nearly gave out.
The only sounds were our shallow breaths and the roaring in my ears. The night was complete in here, save for the shape of John’s massive body surrounding me.
“I thought you said one kiss,” he said, voice rough—so much deeper, so muchthickerthan I’d ever heard it.
A slow, wicked smile tugged at my mouth. I wondered if he could see it. “I didn’t saywhere,” I whispered. Drunk-Nora was fearless.
He let out a pained groan, half-laugh, half-surrender. “You’ll be the death of me.”
I shifted restlessly, and John pressed his full weight against me, flattening me to the door. One long leg slid between mine. I couldn’t move—he waseverywhere. His thigh pressed higher, rubbing rightthere, and for a moment, I forgot my own name.
“Tell me to stop,” he breathed into my neck, leaving goosebumps in his wake. Then he kissed them away.
I slipped my hands under his shirt, fingers roaming the hot skin of his back, feeling the taut shift of muscle beneath my palms. I pulled him closer. Telling him exactly what I wanted.
Instead of obeying, he pulled back just slightly. Still holding me firm. His whole body tense. I feared, for one terrible second, that he’d let go. Send me outside into the night. Leaving me burning. Again. Leaving me ashamed. Again.
“We really shouldn’t do this,” he said, voice cracking. “You…” He swallowed. “I’m worried you’ll hate me.”
“I’m a big girl,” I whispered. “I can take it.”
