up here. I don’t mean to rush into this. I just . . . like you.”
His nose wrinkled at the quasi-confession, so cute. The image of him straightening up for me endeared him to me. The speed with which he shared how he felt terrified me.
“Would you mind if we just talked for a bit?”
His crooked smile put me at ease. “Most people tell me to shut up.”
“I love listening to you talk.” And staring at him when he did. I loved the way his features changed so dramatically as he spoke about things he felt passionately about. I loved that he could go from animated to totally still, and somehow his intensity never abated. He gave off all the potential power of a lit stick of dynamite.
But my mind was urging me to beware. His interest in me was too much, too fast. What if I changed my mind?
My history with men had never been successful.
Back in college, when Liam hadn’t taken my rejection well, he’d persisted for months, nearly stalking me, trying to make me change my mind. He hadn’t done anything illegal or violent, but it left me leery of fanatic devotion. Ironically.
And yet, Shane drew me to him, like the moon pulls the tides. I liked that he didn’t play games. I liked that he didn’t play it cool.
It scared me in equal measure.
He scooted onto the bed and fluffed the pillows against the backboard. “This okay?”
I propped myself beside him but slid down flat and turned on my side. He did the same, and we faced each other in what felt like a bizarre sleepover.
His mouth was maybe six inches from mine. “What should we talk about?”
Our bodies didn’t touch, but I felt as though we did. Something like an electric charge built up in the space between us. “Maybe get to know each other?”
His hand found mine, but he didn’t twine our fingers. Instead, he followed my arm until he reached my shoulder and then took a sharp detour to the hair falling over my neck. With a strand twirling between his fingers, he answered. “I’m an open book. Ask me anything.”
It was hard to think of words with him looking at me with those dilated eyes, with his shallow breathing, with his tongue running along his lower lip.
“Um, how old are you?”
He smiled. “Oh, good. You didn’t research me ahead of time.”
If he only knew. “Why? Is there something you don’t want me to know?”
He shook his head. “Like I said, I’m an open book. But you can’t learn everything about a person from a Wikipedia entry.”
Wikipedia! I hadn’t even thought to check there. “You have a Wiki page?”
“Not much of one. It would have told you I’m thirty-one.”
I peered at him, memorizing the planes on his face, the curve of his lips. I wanted to watch those lips move. “Where are you from originally?”
“Outside DC.” He met my eyes, and I knew he felt the desire I was failing to combat.
He let go of the strand of hair he’d been examining and used his fingers like a comb, tickling behind my ear, my neck, along my collarbone.
My brain shut down.
I didn’t want to ask him questions or think or glean facts that didn’t matter. I just wanted to give in to feeling.
I touched his wrist and traced the length of his arm. His gaze locked with mine.
“What else do you want to know, Layla?”
Nothing. I didn’t want to know anything else. “Can I kiss you?”
He didn’t respond in words. His eyes softened, and he moved an inch closer. I rolled toward him the rest of the way.
This time when our lips met, we were closer in spirit than in body. He kissed gently, coaxing, like we had all the time in the world, and this deserved our full attention. He shifted slightly, and his hand slid up my spine, urging me closer, until we lined up perfectly, legs against legs, chest against chest. My fingers worked their way under his shirt. I needed to feel his muscles. Every touch brought another adjustment from him until our legs were completely intertwined, our arms wrapped around each other, and our mouths inseparable.
But feeding one need only birthed another. We were as close as we could possibly get, except for the thin layer of clothes that might as well have been a hundred feet thick.
The same thought must have occurred to him because he grabbed the hem of my shirt and tugged. I sat up