Page 49 of Lethal Attraction

I pull back slightly, grabbing her cheeks and smooshing her lips as I pin her with a stern stare. “And where have you been all day, Little Devil?”

She rolls her lips in, her brows rising. “Have you missed me?”

My eyes flicker to her lips as I begin to sober. “I have…”

Her mirth ebbs a little as the air thickens between us. For a brief moment, I see hesitation in her eyes. The fierce and bold woman I’ve come to know is reluctant about something.

My brow draws as I stare down at her, trying to assess what I’ve done or said that’s caused her to pull away. I don’t like it. I don’t want her holding back from this…

“Thalia—”

She presses her fingertips to my lips, silencing me as something profound and almost sad blows her pupils. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” I ask quietly.

She looks away as if trying to find an escape. “We don’t even know what we’re doing—”

Now it’s my turn to silence her as I lift her knuckles to my lips and press a chaste kiss to them. “I know what I’m doing. I’m about to take this amazing woman on another date, and she’s going to let me.”

Her gasp is light, barely audible between us. Her hands curl into the lapels of my coat as she tilts her head. “What makes you think I would agree?”

I chuckle at her stubbornness as my lips trail further along her flesh. “Because I’m not giving you a choice, Little Devil.”

Her lips quirk, and that hesitancy melts away. “I like it when you’re bossy.”

I press forward, capturing her lips in a slow, sensual kiss that bleeds the longing I’ve felt for her since we parted ways. It’s heated and desperate while still holding the innocence of a kiss between new lovers. When I pull back, her eyes are glassy and faraway as a small smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. That very look will live in my damn dreams.

I intertwine our fingers, humming in my throat as I nip at her bottom lip. “We’re going to have to sneak out.”

Thalia blinks up at me, her look hazed for half a second before her grin turns wicked. “Sneak out? Are you asking me to commit crimes with you already? I thought that was like a third date kind of thing?”

“It’s not a crime,” I argue.

She narrows her eyes playfully. “Pretty sure I heard the nurses locking up while you were coming loud enough for the fourth floor to hear you.”

My mouth falls open as a huff of a laugh passes my lips. “First of all, rude.”

Her grin only widens. “Second of all?”

“You say that like you weren’t participating.”

She presses a hand dramatically to her chest. “I was a victim of circumstance.”

“A victim?” I scoff. “You had me on a leash, Little Devil.”

She pulls me closer, nipping at my bottom lip as her eyes become half-lidded and dangerous. “But you like being my pet, don’t you?”

I gulp. “I do.”

“Hmm,” she muses softly as her thin fingers slide into the collar of my button-up. She moves the fabric aside, her gaze shifting to the scar of her initials that has healed nicely.

Her thumb rubs across it tenderly before she dips and her tongue touches my heated flesh. I suck in as she licks over her mark like the vixen she is, with fire in her eyes.

“I like seeing my mark on you, Reed.”

Fuck. Me.

Spontaneous combustion is very real.