"“There’s not a woman in the world with enough training to
fix me. Don’t try.” Another warning, his tone a little
cooler.
She shook her head. This was about fixing herself, not him.
“I just keep thinking that if I leave without kissing you,
I’ll always wonder what it would have been like.”
That sounded too ingenuous, too needy, but his quietly
loaded, “Yeah,” seemed to put them on the same page, which
was remarkable. He stared at her mouth and hot tingles made
her lips feel plump. She tried to lick the sensation away.
His breath rushed out in a ragged exhale. He loomed closer,
so tall and broad, blocking out her vision, nearly
overwhelming her. But when his fingers lightly caressed her
jaw and his mouth came down, she was paralyzed with
anticipation.
There’d been a few kisses in her life, none very memorable,
but when his mouth settled on hers, unhurried and hot, she
knew she’d remember this for the rest of her life.
The smooth texture of his lips sealed to hers. He didn’t
force her mouth open. She softened and welcomed his
confident possession, weakening despite the nervous flutters
accosting her. He rocked the fit, deepening the kiss so she
opened her mouth wider, bathed in delicious waves of heat.
Their lips dampened and slid erotically. His tongue was
almost there, then not, then—
He licked into her mouth and she moaned, lashed with
exquisite delight. This was the kind of kiss she’d only read
about and now she knew there was a reason they called it a
soul kiss. Her hand went to his shoulder for balance. She
lifted on her toes, wanting more pressure, more of him
settling into her inner being.
With a groan he slid his arm around her and pulled her tight
against him, softly crushing her mouth while digging his
fingers into her bound hair. It was good, so good. She
reached her arms around his neck, loving how it felt to be
kissed and held so tightly against his hard chest and—
He was hard everywhere.
Like hitting a wall, she pushed back, perturbed by how
intensely she had been responding and the dicey situation
she’d put herself in.
He didn’t let her go right away, kind of steadied her first
while staggering one step himself, then he ran a hand
through his hair and swore under his breath. “Hellfire,
Jaya. I suspected it’d be good, but I didn’t know it’d be
that good. Are you sure you don’t want to spend the night?”"