Page 26 of Pike

Lavinia was more than doomed. She was on the fast track toward destruction.

CHAPTER 7

She wouldn’t stop kissing him. Especially not when he reacted, bringing his arm around her shoulder and holding her close. He recognized the moment that she took it as a sign and went full steam ahead.

He savored her warmth, and the way she began to shift against him for a more comfortable position had him responding like any normal man when he kissed a beautiful woman he desired. For the first time in her life, he realized, Lavinia felt it was true. She felt she was beautiful, and the reaction stirring inside of her was justified. The tightening of her body and slow, kindling burn of desire.

Trouble was, he was beginning to feel that burn too.

Pike broke the kiss to stare at her. “What are you doing?”

She blew out a gust of air. “I don’t know.” Her breath came in deep gulps. “I honestly don’t know.”

“I think maybe you do,” he said, and she smiled at the roughness in his voice.

He bent down to kiss her again. She curled her fists into his shirt to bring him to her front. Why couldn’t he make himself stop her? Why couldn’t he convince her to leave him alone and look somewhere else?

Because he needed her in the worst way. A way that meant literal life or death.

Then her mouth covered his and Pike lost all track of reality. His world reshaped and took her form, became her tiny hands skimming over his chest, her soft lips, her delicate body. He knew every peak and valley even though he’d never touched her this way before.

She deepened the kiss, growing more urgent. He couldn’t help the way his body responded immediately. Lavinia quivered against him, sending a hot whip of lust through his system.

He pushed his tongue through her lips with a groan, taking his time tasting her, drinking in every part of her. She pried one of her hands loose from his shirt and set it down on his pants just above his erection. Pike sucked air into his lungs like a drowning man, feeling her heat shoot through him all the way to his groin.

Then she squeezed. Fire pooled in his gut. He wanted her. Wanted her on him, around him.

He knew he wasn’t perfect. His hair wasn’t styled and his eyes were wild and he could still smell the sewer on them both. Sexy, he joked. Tension coiled through him, evident in the tautness in his shoulders. If she begged him, he wasn’t sure if he could stop himself now. Hard enough managing to breathe, to clear his mind of the crazed energy he should be worried about.

Lavinia arched her neck to bring their lips into contact, catching the moment the sarcastic twinkle in his eyes turned razor-sharp.

“I’m not going to bother asking you if you realize what you’re doing to me.” He caught her chin between his fingers. “I can tell you know exactly.”

Then he yanked her against his chest, her legs moving to either side of his hips, mouth ravishing hers, and he forgot all about his racing heart. The inability to breathe.

She did her best to crawl closer. Sighed when he moved to nibble her ear.

“But I smell.”

“I don’t smell anything.”

“Sewer slop!” she insisted.

“If you don’t kiss me, I’m going to explode. Sewer slop or not.”

“We can’t have that now, can we? I can think of a thousand more pleasurable things than finding out if you’re combustible.”

Need shot through him. Molten. Welcome. Pike rode the wave and tugged Lavinia as close as physically possible, her fingers walking the length of his chest, the back of his neck, and threading through his dark strands of hair. Her back arched when his lips found her mouth again.

Her hands did what they pleased and touched every inch of his skin she’d dreamed about at night. Ooh, boy, he’d turned her into an exhibitionist. Dry humping in plain sight of crosstown traffic.

“I won’t take you on the street like an animal.” He jerked his chin. “I live three blocks over.”

Lavinia shivered. “I think I can make it.”

He tugged her to her feet and they hurried along the sidewalk, Pike drawing her underneath the shelter of his arm. Her short legs had a difficult time keeping up with him. In response, he swung her up into his back piggy-back style, delighted when she laughed.

It was the longest walk of his life. A million years passed before they made it to his front door and he typed in his key code.

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