Page 25 of Carnival of Crows

For thirty years, I’d thought hunger was something you immediately recognized. Something that announced itself with an ache. I hadn’t known a man could spend his entire life starving and never feel it until someone awoke as if by spell.

The thing was, Luci kissed me like she’d been waiting in the starvation too.

I turned my head, catching her mouth again as my thumb traced slowly beneath her jaw.

For a few impossible seconds, Graves Park disappeared. The midway, the crowds, Luci’s review, my family… all of it. There was only Luci beneath my hands and the taste of apples on my tongue. And that was exactly why I stopped.

I broke the kiss abruptly.

My forehead rested against hers while both of us caught our breath. Her fingers were still tangled in the hair at the nape of my neck. My hand was still around her waist.

Fuck.

“This is…” I swallowed. Not professional. This was supposed to be professional. She was here because Sidney invited her. She was reviewing our business. I’d known this woman for a matter of hours. “No.” I shook my head. “We shouldn’t do this.”

Luci’s hand slipped from my neck.

“Right.”

She gave me just the quiet word and stepped back like I’d just slapped her across the face.

Immediately I hated the space between us. She looked toward the lake, pressing her lips together as another firework illuminated her profile. I lasted three whole seconds after the fact.

Fuck professional.

Fuck the review.

Fuck every reasonable argument my brain had managed to assemble.

“Fuck it.”

Her head snapped toward me as I caught her around the waist and pulled her back. Her surprised laugh disappeared against my mouth.

The second kiss wasn’t careful.

It wasn’t the Ringmaster testing the boundaries with a guest. It wasn’t the owner of Graves Park worrying about a review. It was me choosing something because I wanted it.. choosing someone because I wanted them.

Her arms wound around my neck as another burst of orange rained over Butcher’s Bay. My hand spread across her back, holding her against me while the other returned to her face, my thumb brushing the corner of her mouth before I kissed her again.

She smiled into it. Actually smiled.

I felt the curve of it beneath my lips, and something warm and unfamiliar cracked open inside my chest. Below us, Graves Park glowed through the darkness. The Ferris wheel turned through the fog. The carousel played its ancient little song. Crows perched along rooftops and forgotten rides. Thousands of amber lights flickered across the midway my grandparents had built and I’d fought to bring back from the dead.

For five years, I’d stood in the middle of it all and watched other people find magic here. Tonight, beneath a sky burning orange, with Luci Addams in my arms and cinnamon still lingering on her lips, I finally understood what it felt like to find some of my own.

CHAPTER 10

Luci

The cold bit through my jacket, but I barely felt it. All I could focus on was the heat of Damien, the way his body pressed against mine, his hands sliding around my waist, fingers splaying possessively over my body.

His tongue traced a slow, deliberate line down my throat. A shiver ripped through me, not from the cold, but from the way his teeth grazed my collarbone, sharp and teasing.

One hand gripped my hip, the other was tangled in my hair, tilting my head back so he could claim my mouth. His kiss was a challenge, a dare… he tasted like apple cider and trouble. The kind of trouble I never would have considered before tonight. This was supposed to be work. I’d gotten these tickets for free, for Pete’s sake.

He cursed when he broke the kiss. “What are you doing to me?”

“I imagine the same thing you’re doing to me,” I offered.