Kai nods. “Yeah. I do. Thanks for…” He trails off.
“Mhm.” I nod.Beat. Beat.
“You didn’t have to.”
“No,” I agree. “I didn’t.”Beat. “But I wanted to.”
Kai looks up at me. Right in the eyes.
Works his jaw to the side like he’s deciding something.
“Fuck it,” he mutters.
And he pulls me down to him.
I nearly lose my balance, landing sidesaddle on the bench in front of him, but I don’t fall, Ican’tfall, because Kai’s arm is wrapped around my waist as he kisses me.
He kisses me.Kaikisses me, hard and hot and almost too firm, and when he breaks away he pants into the inch of space between our mouths.
“I’m sorry,” he says, forehead still pressed to mine. “Fuck, I’m sorry, I didn’t?—”
“No.” I shake my head under his grip. “Don’t?—”
Somehow, he knows what I mean, and he kisses me, takes me, a second impossible time, with the warmth of his lips and the glide of his tongue and the little scrape of metal on my skin. I clutch at him, press into him, kiss back even as he clamps his hold around me harder.
Then he pulls away slightly, and the rush of disappointment that cools over me is almost painful. But he doesn’t let me go. Just holds my head in his hands at looks at me.
“I’m fucking crazy about you, Gwenna,” he says, voice low, eyes locked on mine. “You know that, right?”
What?I’m so stunned I can only answer honestly. “No.”
The answer seems to amuse him. “Then let me prove it to you.”
God, this is such a mistake, this issuchamistake, I think, but I can’t not. I’m beyond reason, I’m possessed, running my hands over his arms and nipping at his lips and shifting under his touch as his hands find their way down my body. He leans into me, pushing me back slightly with a hand bracing the small of my back as the other slips its way to my hip, under the waistband of my skirt.
Someone gasps. Me.Fuck. My face and neck blaze with heat, but I don’t tell him to stop, I can’t tell him to stop, I’d die if he stopped even if my legs are starting to tremble the further down his touch goes.
I’m scared. Not scared he’ll hurt me but scared that I don’t know what’s going to happen, what I’m supposed to do, and to my horror I realize Kai must notice too, because he briefly stops his hand, stops kissing me, and nuzzles into my neck.
“Relax,” he whispers into the space beneath my ear. “It’s supposed to feel good. If it doesn’t, I’ll stop.”
Throat too thick for words, I just nod, find him again to kiss him, and slip back under his touch. He moves swiftly, easily, the tips of his fingers skating under my clothes and over my hip and?—
“Mmph.” I bleat some muffled noise into his mouth.
It’s…I…
He slides his finger back.
“Ah!”
I sound insane, random syllables. He kisses me harder, closer, so close I can feel the heat of his bare chest even through my sweater, and dimly I realize I’m on my back now, laid across the narrow bench. Kai strokes me again, just lightly, but the sensation makes my whole body shudder and clench.
Am I going to…
How will I know?
My eyes fly open, and when they do, I find myself staring at the lockers behind me, like I’m remembering for the first time where I am, the name KINGSTON PENDRAGON gleaming down at me from the plaque.
