Oh.Crap.
I flush. “Nothing. I…I mean. I didn’t…”
He moves, to my neck, and captures my pulse in his mouth. My back arches as I press into the pillows, helpless. Once he’s done biting, his voice vibrates against me. “Youdidn’tmean to sound like it would break your heart to think of being without me?”
I fill my fists with blankets. “This is…wicked.”
He tastes the skin between my collarbones. “You keep giving me words likemanipulate, then have the audacity to call mewickedwhen I follow your instructions?” He tuts. “I suppose I’ll just assume you mean it as a compliment.”
A fragile whimper escapes me.
“You never did tell me…” He braces himself, fully caging me now on elbows and knees. “…may I kiss you so long as I find a building to thrust myself from after?” He kisses my chin, inches from my mouth. “’Cause you know I will.” He kisses my forehead. “Gladly so.” My nose. “Just say the word.” Breath whispers across my lips.
Lungs starved, I say, “What…word?”
“Oh, saint. Don’t you remember?” He draws the back of his finger down my cheek, lets it rest on the spot where he bit. “I said I’d make you beg. The word…isplease.”
At that, I—obviously—implode.
Chapter 19
?
Anime is very,veryeducational.
Alister
I probably shouldn’t still be smiling.
“You okay?” I ask my poor, overheated little female lead.
Swaying slightly in the kitchen, August tries to regain her senses and her breath while she sips some cold water and takes scheduled breaths. Whatever leaves her mouth in response to my question aren’t entirelywords.
Carefully, I rest the backs of my fingers against her cheek. “Poor thing.”
She shivers, sending me a weak scowl coated in raging blush. Her gaze darts to the ice pack I’m holding, otherwise known as what I’m using purely to cool my hands before my fingers become her ice pack. She supplies me with more incoherent babble marked eventually by another wee whimper and a, “That’s sohot.”
“Still hot?” I cup her pretty red cheek.
“Urusai,” she snaps, which technically meansloudornoisy, but she’s clearly using it in ashut upcapacity. Her eyes close, and she breathes deep, battling for logic.
I interrupt her journey, because I—unlike Ali—know very little about Japanese and will continue to be noisy if I feel like it. “I take it this is why you’re so keen on slow burn if an almost kiss puts you on the brink of passing out.”
“I was not prepared.”
“Clearly.”
She frees the air in her chest. “Were you actually going to kiss me?”
“If you’d saidplease?”
Her lip trembles before she pulls it between her teeth. Eyes off me, she nods.
“No.”
Her shoulders droop.
“I’d have made you work a little harder than that.”
