He withdrew his lips, and an iciness hit more than just my skin. I turned in his arms so I could face him.
“Shit or get off the pot, Langley.”
He grinned, but his eyes were tormented, a mix of so many emotions I didn’t understand. Lust. Regret. Hope.
He bent to place his mouth by my ear again and, so quietly I barely heard the words, whispered, “I’m undercover.”
Goddamn, James Bond it was. I should have known. As much as everyone had wanted me to believe Dawson was a bad boy with a chip on his shoulder, I’d always seen the truth in him. The boy wanting to be something more. Something worthy. He hadn’t been able to see that he was already enough, because his father had always told him he wasn’t.
I rested my forehead on his chest, warring feelings flooding me like the ones I’d seen in him. Mixed in with my desire and hope was fear. For him. For Jada. For Dax.
All of those emotions were aching to be released. So, I gave in to the one thing I could give in to. My longing. I lifted myself onto my toes and kissed him, letting the warmth and taste and scent of him settle over my soul into all the places that had always been his.
Dawson
BREAK IN
“You are the only one.
The only one that sees me,
That trusts me and believes me.”
Performed by Halestorm w/ Amy Lee
Written by Proal / Hale / Holman / Graves
She’d walked into the restaurant looking like a damn angel, and my resolve to stay away crumbled like day-old bread. She wasn’t the kind of angel you wanted to put on a pedestal and leave there. She was one I wanted to worship with every single inch of me covering every single inch of her. No innocent, sweet, bubbly girl in sight. All deadly, sensuous woman.
If I thought too hard about the fact that Silas had touched her in all the places I wanted to. If I allowed myself to think that he might not have been the only one to do so, I’d lose my damned mind. I was selfish and stupid enough to have wanted all of that to have been mine. Her innocence. Her losing it. Her finding her sexuality and exploring it. Instead, it had been given to someone else.
Telling her the truth and kissing her…it put her at risk, and yet, once she laid her lips on mine, I couldn’t deny her or myself what we wanted. The ache that had built up and been shoved down for so long came out as a torrent of desire. I devoured her lips in a way that should have scared her but didn’t. She just met the push and pull of my teeth and lips and tongue with her own wild craving.
My entire being yearned to claim her, to write my name on her with my scent and my touch, and I tried to do that by taking every breath she gave me and replacing it with my own. It was animalistic. It was chauvinistic in a way Vi would never tolerate, and yet, she didn’t once push me away. Instead, she seemed to be claiming me back, writing her own brand on me.
Glass breaking and loud laughter from the restaurant brought me back to my senses. I’d chosen the balcony, leaving the one phone I’d brought to the restaurant and her purse at the bar, because it was the safest place to talk. But the secluded nature of it had lured me into a false sense of security. There were potted plants, outdoor heaters, and a slew of tables and cushioned chairs. Any of them could have been wired. Hell, some of the planters were large enough to hide an entire person.
I drew back from the kiss, pushing away slightly so the cold air whipped between us, cooling off the heat that had grown. But I didn’t remove my hands from her hips. I held her so she couldn’t travel too far.
Her eyes darted from my lips to the restaurant with its room full of people and then back to me.
“Does Jada know?” she asked so quietly it could have been the rustle of leaves in the wind.
I gave the barest of nods.
“Dax?”
I shook my head.
“Truck?”
I shook my head again.
She breathed out. “Can you tell me more?”
“No,” I said. “I shouldn’t have even said that.”
Her face broke into a smile. “Jersey should have made you a superhero instead of me.”