Faked - Karla Sorensen Page 0,50
aside with a bump of my hip, and she slid down the counter but didn't leave.
As I rinsed and washed my dish, the fact that we still had an entire night laid out in front of us, and probably at least a good chunk of the next day, stretched ahead of me like one painful exercise in frustration. Like sitting at the bottom of a mountain of fresh white powder but not having a board to ride down it.
"Maybe I do."
My hands froze in the soapy water at her quiet words. It felt very much like the thing I wanted most was being dangled just out of reach. I could see it and smell it, maybe even brush it with my fingers if I tried hard enough.
I finished rinsing the dish carefully and nudged into her again so that I could set it down by hers. Claire didn't move this time, her head angled in my direction. My hands were gripping the edge of the counter tightly, and I looked at her in the same way.
"Why can't you just ask?" I stared at her lips, open and inviting and incredible. "Because you can't lie to me anymore and pretend this isn't something you want just as badly as I do."
Claire exhaled shakily. "You're right, I can't."
I dropped my chin to my chest and swore. "What are you so afraid of?"
Her inhale was large, not shaky, but the kind of big, deep breath you took when you were trying to fortify yourself before a giant leap off the edge of a mountain. It's what I did every single time I strapped on a board before I started moving.
"Will you look at me, Bauer?"
Pinching my eyes shut for a moment before I did, I desperately searched for every shred of self-control that I had, if this turned out to be another night where I laid by myself on a stupid couch. When I felt steadier, I turned away from the counter and faced her, eyes zeroed in on hers.
"I'm not afraid of you," she insisted. Her hands carefully, slowly, softly slid around my hips, up my waist and onto my back, where she curled her fingers into my shirt.
I blew out a slow breath and allowed my hands to coast up her arms until my palms cupped the sides of her neck, my thumbs brushing the edge of her jaw. Inside me, something snarled dangerously, and I barely kept it at bay. But I was able to because of the way she was looking up at me.
"But this," she continued, her fingers increasing the hold she had on me, like she was afraid I would be going fucking anywhere right now, "this is the most terrifyingly unexpected thing I've ever wanted."
My smile came easily. "Princess, you have no idea," I murmured, lowering my head over hers.
Just before our lips touched, I paused, and she let out the most insanely erotic whimper, something hoarse with longing.
"You still haven't asked me," I told her, lifting my chin just enough my bottom lip brushed against her mouth.
Now I felt the edges of her fingernails in my back. I grinned.
"Bauer, you stubborn pain in my ass," she whispered. "Pretty, pretty please with sugar on top, will you kiss—"
My mouth took hers before she could finish her sentence, and I knew, unequivocally, how wrecked I was.
Chapter Sixteen
Claire
Bauer kissed like he was put on this earth for that one singular purpose alone.
My bones melted like slowly heating metal, and he wrapped his strong arms around my body to keep me firmly against him. His lips were sure and firm, and he sucked on my bottom lip like it was candy, growling when I licked into his mouth.
He was strong and hard and warm, and my arms went up around his neck as he tasted me deep, deep, deeper. This was no typical first kiss where he danced around me, or I danced around him.
We moved together perfectly, slick and sweet, as he took my lips again. And again.
His hands were tight against me, fitting along the curve of my rib cage and down, down until he filled his palms with my ass. I rolled closer to him, inhaling through my nose when I couldn't even dream of pulling my mouth away from his to get a breath.
My fingers curled around the back of his head as I held him to me, and he smiled against my lips.
"So good," he murmured. "So sweet."
Bauer ran the edge of his nose