crept across his handsome, harsh features. “I know you want me.”
She narrowed her eyes, embarrassment washing through her. “Let go of me. I will hurt you.”
He sighed, but didn’t release his grip. “I wasn’t teasing you. Just stating a fact. And I’ve wanted you since the moment I laid eyes on you. I’ve wanted to know what it would be like to kiss you. To hold you. It’s kind of been a problem as I was supposed to bring you in. Until you touched me, I was sure my ability to sense your emotions was making me vulnerable to you. But I don’t think so. I think it’s you.”
Symone ducked her head. She didn’t want to see the sincerity in his eyes. She tried to dilute the strong emotions swirling around inside her. “You know, stalking is illegal.”
He smirked. “Smartass.” His eyes dipped to stare at her lips. “I’ll make you a deal.”
“What kind of deal?” Her pulse kicked up as she smelled the desire on him. He wanted her too.
“One kiss, and if you don’t feel anything besides the physical connection, I’ll let it go. I won’t bring it up again.” His voice dropped low. “I just want to know that I kissed you once because you wanted me to.”
Symone’s body shook. Why did he have to say it like that? Why did he have to make her feel wanted, no, needed. “You already kissed me at my apartment. And in the alley.”
His lips thinned. “Yes, but before, back at your apartment and in the cabin, you just responded. You said it yourself—heightened levels of attraction. Add to it all the adrenaline, and you have a recipe for let’s get it on. But now it’s just you, and just me, and we’re floating, and if you kiss me and you don’t feel it...”
He had a point there. Her responses to him were so strong she didn’t think. But now he was asking her to make a definitive choice. It boiled down to determining what she wanted. Her voice was soft and foreign sounding when she spoke. “Yes. You have a deal.”
Immediately, he pulled her into his body and slid a leg between them. “Put your arms around my neck.”
She complied. She could feel the heat of him.
Garrett dipped his head, and her body crackled to life in slow-motion detail. Every thud of her heart sounded like a mega drone. Her blood rushed like whitewater, and her core heated to molten lava. She knew what to expect. The harsh branding. The demanding assault on her lips and body as their bodies ignited.
But she was wrong.
Boy was she ever wrong. Despite the rigid length of him insistently nudging her thigh, he kept the kiss gentle. When his lips met hers, they glided over hers like silk. But just because he was gentle with this kiss didn’t make it any less drugging than the last time their lips met. Butterflies danced in her belly. God, he was barely even doing anything, and her whole body wanted to melt into his.
They gently floated down to the bed and she relaxed when the bed gave under their weight.
He sipped her lips like he was tasting fine wine. Gentle grazes. No gulping down her flavor, just savoring. With his hand, he tucked her hair behind her ear then cupped her cheek, lightly caressing her cheekbones. A hairsbreadth from kissing her again, his jerked when he made contact. “Ahh.”
She blushed and tried to move away. “I’m sorry, I—”
He held her in place, his strong fingers suspending her with very little pressure at the nape of her neck. “Symone, it feels good.” He sighed when her brows furrowed. “Every time I touch you, it’s like when you’re dancing with someone you’re totally into. When you know that the dance is just laying the ground work for what you’ll be doing later. That electric charge that goes through your body and settles in your—”
His body jerked beneath her.
“Blood.” He finished with a cough.
She stared at him. “It doesn’t hurt at all?”
“I think the energy you emit has a lot to do with what you’re feeling. If you’re scared or worried or pissed, then your touch is pretty much deadly. If like now,”—he nipped her lip again, and her hips gave an involuntary kick—“You’re aroused, it’s like molten lust injected into my bloodstream.”
“Maybe it’s just you it’s different with.”
He caressed her again, inhaling deeply. This time his hips rotated in a small circle, and she moaned, unaware that the