Page 21 of Dopplebanger

I gasped. “A person’s favorites playlist is supposed to be sacred.”

He curled me to his chest, and I pretended to fight it for a second, but the temptation to be in his arms grew too strong. “Come on. Just take a risk with me—it’s a little risk.” He brushed his lips across mine and all the oxygen whooshed out of my lungs.

“Resorting to dirty tricks to get your way?”

“What can I say? You inspire a lot of dirty ideas.” He plunged his tongue inside my mouth and stroked it over mine. I practically melted in his arms, the ache between my thighs that’d pulsed to life several times today turning into an all-encompassing need when I felt his hardness pushing into me.

I didn’t care about the crowd of people around us. All I cared about was more, more, more. I moved my lips to his neck, his jaw, up to his ear. “You definitely feel like the Man of Steel right now.”

He made a raw, hungry sound in the back of his throat and then pulled away, and my hazed, blissed-out state left me scrambling as to why.

The next thing I knew, Evan was handing tickets over to the guy working the Zipper, and I had a feeling he’d situated me in front of him to hide the arousal now pressing against my butt. Then I was being strapped inside a metal death trap.

“Wait,” I said, even though the carnival operator dude was already on to the next set of victims.

Evan intertwined my fingers with his. “Don’t worry. I got you. And you can squeeze as hard as you need to.”

I squeezed, my stomach rocking with the cage as we moved a few feet. “Omigosh, omigosh.”

“Okay, I underestimated your bone-crushing abilities.”

“Sorry, you don’t get to take it back, just like I can’t take back being foolish enough to get on this ride with you. Let the record show, I was coerced. Coerced, I tell you!”

Evan’s low laughter filled my ear, and under other circumstances, I might’ve found it sexy—okay, I still found it sexy.

The people behind us finished loading into the next cage, and the metal slide of the lock sliding into place sent my blood pressure screeching into the danger zone.

Then we soared a few feet higher, our suspended cage level with the nearby buildings and trees. I made the mistake of scooting forward and looking at the ground underneath us. I squeezed Evan’s hand even tighter, tight enough I cut off my own circulation, so I was sure his was long gone by now.

The operator locked up the last cage, which meant this ride was about to shift into holy-shit territory.

“Wait, wait, wait.” I turned to Evan, imploring him with my eyes. “I want off.”

“I… don’t exactly have the power to make the ride wait.”

Panic dug its claws into my lungs. “What kind of a superhero are you anyway?”

“The fake kind,” he replied with a way-too-amused grin. I scowled at him, wincing as the cage swung back.

The whine of the engine grew louder, and tight, ready-to-snap tension stretched my muscles.

Then Evan placed his hand on the side of my face and slanted his lips over mine. I threw all my anxiety into the kiss, and it helped take the edge off.

Okay, it’s not so bad.As long as I didn’t look down, because out of the corner of my eye I saw we now we were even higher than the trees andoh crap, oh crap, oh crap.

“If we live through this,” I mumbled against his lips, “you owe me ice cream. I’m talking multiple scoops and hot fudge and all the toppings.”

“Deal,” he said, and then the ride jolted into motion and my scream was left in the dust.

Five ridiculously intense rides where I’d wrapped myself around Evan later, my legs and body had turned gelatinous after moving too fast for too long.

And I was still wrapped around Evan. That move was like twenty percent the-ground-felt-unsteady-under-my-feet, and eighty percent enjoying-being-wrapped-around-him.

He slowed in front of the booth with a tower of milk bottles people tried to knock over for prizes. “To make up for dragging you along on all those rides—which I know you enjoyed, even though you’ll never admit it—I’m going to win you a prize.”

“One, I enjoyed them as much as anyone who thinks too much about every bolt and rickety part can, and two, these games are all rigged.”

“No faith,” he said, shaking his head.

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