If you move, I will kill your friend.
Devon cleared his throat, although the gesture did nothing to ease the tightness log-jamming his vocal cords. Sliding his thumb and forefinger through the scissor loops, he waited for Kylie to turn around before threading his opposite hand through her hair. She smelled sweet and clean, like flowers and fresh bedsheets, and even though he didn’t need to, Devon ran his fingers all the way to the ends of her hair twice, because that’s the sort of bastard he was.
To his total surprise, Kylie melted into his touch.
“Thank you,” she said, her voice notched down to a throaty whisper that made his dick stir behind the fly of his jeans.
Christ, he needed to concentrate. He angled the scissors over a strand of her hair, opening and closing them in a precise cut. “For what?”
“For coming to the motel when Kellan called you. For keeping me from getting killed. For staying so calm when I’m not. Take your pick.”
Devon was tempted to tell her all of that was part of the job, that he owed her brother a thousand favors that would get him shot at and chased across the country. That he wasn’t calm so much as he simply hadn’t allowed himself to feel anything for the last four years.
But instead, he stuck with a gruff “You’re welcome,” making another cut with the scissors, then a few more still before adding, “You know, not staying calm in situations like these doesn’t mean you’re not tough. In fact, all that emotion is a good sign you’re normal.”
Kylie’s shoulders tightened slightly, although her chin stayed on the level. “Yeah. I’m sure all my pure-terror panic is really helpful in keeping me safe.”
“It’s normal,” Devon reiterated. “Plus, you’re doing just fine. I’ve seen guys twice your size cry like babies at the slightest whiff of danger.”
“Really?”
“Really.” He moved around to Kylie’s side, reaching for the last long lock of uncut hair. His fingers accidentally brushed the bare skin on her shoulder, just above the strap of her tank top, and damn, how could she be so soft when he was so loaded with rough edges?
She turned her chin, looking up at him from over her shoulder. “Are all the emotions normal? Even the ones caused by the adrenaline, like you said?”
The glint in her eyes did nothing to make his cock stand down, and Devon swallowed hard. Kylie was off-limits. Forbidden. Way too good for a guy like him.
Also, quite possibly the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen in his life, who was currently looking at him with unmistakable hunger he wanted nothing more than to sate, again and again and again.
“Kylie.” Fuck, even her name was like sin in his mouth. “Listen, what you’re feeling right now is?—”
“Want,” she said, the flush on her face looking as if it had damn little to do with being bashful. “I don’t care if it’s the adrenaline making me feel this way. The truth is, today could be the last day I’ve got.”
“It’s not.”
Although Devon met her stare with equal intensity, trying like hell to fight the heat tearing through his veins, Kylie still turned all the way around.
“I want you anyway, Devon. Right now. Without regrets.”
His heart slammed, his restraint waning fast. “We can’t.”
“We can,” she whispered, her lips so close he could feel the hypnotic heat in her words. “All you have to do is say yes.”
Kylie’s curves were the perfect contrast to the hard angles of his body, pressing against him in all the places he ached to be touched and licked and fucked, and in that split second of dark, greedy want, Devon knew he’d love every second of giving her what she’d asked for.
Even if he hated himself for it later.
He slanted his mouth over hers in a kiss so bruising and hot, he could taste the desire on her tongue. Kylie matched his need measure for measure, opening to let him in while taking back at the same time, searching and stroking with her lips, her tongue, her teeth.
“Oh, God.” Kylie’s words collapsed on a moan, and Devon’s pulse ramped higher in his chest as she tipped her head back to give him better access to her neck.
The heat in the lowest part of his belly became an outright demand. “You need to be sure,” he bit out, grabbing for the last thread of his already unraveling composure.
She didn’t hesitate for a second. “I’ve been sure since I kissed you last night.”
It was all Devon needed to hear. He loosened his grip on the scissors, tossing them far enough away to keep from being caught underfoot as he maneuvered Kylie backward to the bed. Splaying one palm wide over the paper-thin cotton covering her shoulder blades, he lowered her to the mattress, dividing the frame of her body with his hips.
Good Christ, he wanted to rip every last stitch of clothing from her body and push his cock into her, hard and fast and five seconds ago. But as much as the basest part of his brain urged him to do exactly that, the fierce, needful expression shaping Kylie’s features made him pause.
