“Already did,” he said, a definite note of anger in his voice. “But to answer your question. Yeah. Your body speaks to mine.”
“Will you…” Now I fumbled. “Does that mean that we—” I motioned between us. “I mean, if you’re not that kind of man to begin with, does that mean I have to start with someone…?” This was coming out all wrong! I took a deep breath, prepared to go in for another try, but he glanced out of the side mirror before he pulled to the side of the road.
We bumped over a gravel patch until we hit grass and he set the truck in park. We idled, headlights casting two beams along the empty two-lane road. He stared out of the window for a moment before he turned to me. After an intense minute, where we just stared at each other, he stalked closer, like a powerful, lethal cat, an innocent doe in his sights.
My heart picked up, my mouth parted, and my breath came out in pants. He had purposely cornered me on the opposite side of the truck, my back against the seat, my arm pressed against the door.
He stared down at me, licking his lips, studying my face with…a passion that made me weak.
Lower, I clenched, and then sucked in a breath of air.
He leaned closer and my eyes automatically closed. The intake of breath left me in a slow, soft stream. The tip of his sharp nose came to my chest, the hollow of my throat, and he breathed in as he glided up to the edge of my chin, until he came down, just to move to the frantic pulse in my neck.
It mimicked the heart beating in my chest, thrumming in my ears, drowning out all other sounds.
It would have seemed that this was a sensual move, but it was more than that. Possessive. Having the ability to feel him put me at an advantage. I had seen how most people reacted to him. They didn’t know how to take him, so they couldn’t read him. He gave nothing away, unless he wanted to. It was different for me. For the most part, he couldn’t hide from me, which meant that I felt him on a different level.
When he spoke, he spoke to the pulse in my neck. “No one touches you, Scarlett Rose,” he murmured, his breath washing over my chilled skin in soft, warm exhales. “Mine.”
“First and last,” I breathed, unable to stop the truth from spilling from my mouth. Something I longed to believe in, to hold close and call all mine for the rest of my life.
In response to this, he bit me hard enough that my hands came up, finding his shoulders, and my nails dug into his skin. I hissed out a breath, a shot of lightning racing between my legs, stronger this time—it hadn’t really faded from earlier, the pulse—and a noise that didn’t seem to come from a human being came from my mouth.
With him, this way, the word “inhibition” held no meaning. He made me feel the same way he was—animalistic.
“Answer me,” he demanded, about to set his teeth against tender skin again.
I had answered him, without prompting. But “first and last” were not the words he demanded to hear. One word.
“Yes,” I breathed. “Yes.” Oh God, yes!
Instead of the sharpness of his teeth, his tongue trailed over the spot he had bitten, slow and warm, until he ventured further up, tracing the shape of my mouth, before his lips met mine and he kissed me, deep, long and languorous, his tongue sweet against mine, thumbs stroking over the soft fabric of my top, over my nipples.
Whimpering—that’s what came from me.
After he had broken the kiss, the touch, I sat immobilized, unable to move. He had stolen my breath—no, everything—and had yet to give it back. I doubted that he ever would.
“Enough,” he said, starting to drive again. “For now.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Scarlett
The concert fell on Mitch’s birthday, which he wasn’t all too pleased about. We all gave him an out, if he wanted to take it, but he refused, deciding instead to make the night even more memorable. Being a nuisance. This behavior continued after we arrived at the train tracks.
“My ears…” he screeched. “They’re bleeeeeding!” He slapped his hands over his ears before laughing his sandpaper laugh. “All that puss music was like water torture to the eardrums. Now this, this is what you call legit music.”