“There’s something I need to know,” he said, taking a fistful of my shirt and towing me closer.
“What?” I have no idea if he even heard the word because it sounded like a sigh.
His lips didn’t just touch me; they didn’t just brush against mine… They captured me. I couldn’t even be considered their hostage because even if he pulled back and offered freedom, I would have stayed. I would have begged for more.
He kissed me like he’d never kissed me before. Slow. Soft. Gentle. He was so utterly and agonizingly slow, tilting his head one way and then the other. The friction of his lips meeting mine again and again filled every part of me with something warm and liquid, until I was so overfull with longing I couldn’t sit still.
My body started to move, a slow rocking motion in his lap, like we were lost at sea and our boat just followed the waves. Too soon, he pulled back gently, dropping a kiss to the tip of my nose before leaning his head against the back of the couch to stare at me with heavy-lidded eyes.
What did you say to someone when they kissed you so good you couldn’t even remember your own name?
Nothing. You said nothing.
You sat there and prayed they would kiss you again.
The side of his mouth curved upward and a lock of blond hair fell into his eye. “That answers that.”
“What?” I said, my voice sounding far away to my own ears.
“I wondered if you would still be attracted to this new body, to me.”
I pushed my fingers through the hair falling over his eye, gripping it on top of his head. “There’s something I need to know,” I told him.
He lifted one of his blond brows and stared at me.
I reached for the buttons on his shirt and began at his throat slowly unfastening them one by one. He watched me with his arms at his sides, not trying to help me. Not trying to stop me. Just watching. I left the ends of his shirt tucked into his pants and the suspenders where they were. My hands slipped inside the opening of his shirt, pushing it open wider, and I looked down.
Washboard abs.
I ran my fingertip down the center and they contracted, the separate muscles rippling at my touch.
“Well, that answers that,” I said, looking at him mischievously.
“What?”
“I like this body a lot better.”
He grinned, flashing his teeth. One of them had a tiny chip in the corner. “My other body had abs too.”
“True. And Charming was very hot,” I said, running my palm across his stomach. “But Oliver… he’s my guy.”
His eyes darkened to the color of thick moss that grew under a tree. “You know I didn’t leave you behind. I only went to protect you. I don’t want him near you.”
I didn’t bother to point out that it didn’t matter because the Reaper had me in his sights. I liked this conversation far too much to bring that up again. “I know that now.”
“Listen to me,” he said, moving quickly, speaking fiercely. He captured my head between his hands and sat up so he was staring directly into my eyes. “I’m going to get us out of this. Both of us. And when I do, you’re never going to have to worry about me leaving again.”
Yep. There I went. I melted completely into a puddle.
“Are you trying to charm me?” I said, though my voice was too watery to hold the sarcastic tone I meant to have.
“I don’t have to charm you,” he said.
“No?”
He released me and shook his head slowly. “No. Because you’ve already charmed me. Completely.”
“Ahhh, so the charmer has finally been charmed?”
