Page 49 of The Lightkeeper

As I dressed, I thought carefully about what I wanted to say next. I didn’t want this to be the one and only time this happened, but I also didn’t want to pressure him into thinking that I’d just keep demanding more.

We rode mostly in silence back to where I was staying. He pulled up out front of the old colonial house just outside of town but didn’t put the truck in part.A subtle, silent goodbye.

“Kit.” I paused with my hand on the door handle and looked over my shoulder at him. “One experiment isn’t good, quality research.”

He stared at me so hard and for so long, I was on the verge ofsaying good night and getting out of the truck before whatever was building inside him crushed me.Because it would.The way he retreated so quickly and harshly into his shell was the kind of thing other species took centuries to perfect.

But then the low tenor of his voice oozed through the cab like a fire sparking to life on a winter day.

“Well, I wouldn’t want you to be accused of doing poor research.”

Chapter Twelve

Aurora

“Kit!”I clutched his wrist, his hand buried under the waist of my yoga pants, his fingers consuming my clit as we sat at the traffic light.

“Almost there,” he rumbled, and for the life of me, he could’ve meant either to our destination or to my orgasm.

“Do you need anything? I have to run into town and drop this drawing off at my gallery.”

That was how today started.

“Can I come?”

And that was how it was going to end—his fingers working their magic on my body during the four-minute drive into town.

The light turned green, Kit hit the gas at the same time as his fingers tugged hard on my clit, and I saw stars.

“Kit!”I cried out, grasping his wrist and thehandle above the door, my body trembling with release. It was wildly skillful and incredibly unfair the way he could bring me to orgasm in minutes.

It was partially biology—anatomy; the way I was made made pleasure very easy to come by… when it was with the right person. Like most reactive things, I was relatively inert in many scenarios—like gasoline in your car or propane in a fireplace. But when the right spark was applied, I was…on fire.

And Kit was my spark.

I was panting as we drove through the intersection, the truck coming the opposite direction honking as we passed.

“Do you think they could see?” I gasped, embarrassment fusing to my cheeks.

“No.” Kit chuckled low and slid his hand out of my pants, calmly bringing his fingers to his mouth and slowly sucking what remained of my desire from the tips. I bit into my bottom lip. It was so sexy when he did that.“That was just my cousin, Nox.”

I slumped with relief. Friendship was a small town; in a matter of weeks, I’d learned just as much about its population as I had the coastal one I’d come to study.

The truck slowed, and I stole another glance at Kit. He sat calmly in the driver’s seat, waiting for a break in traffic before turning the wheel with the flat of his palm, and pulling into an alleyway next to his gallery.

Midnight blue with gold trim. A narrow door framed next to a large shop front window, the nameKinkade’sswirled across the top. I’d passed it every day this week on my way to the lighthouse, more curious than ever to go inside. But something stopped me.

Four days, a dozen more experiments, and I was ashamed to say I no longer arrived at the lighthouse eager to learn about the creatures living on its shores but the one inside its house. And I wanted to learn about Kit through what he was willing to show me—share with me. That was why I’d kept my distance from his gallery—because I wanted to experience it with him.

“Ready?” he asked once he’d parked.

I licked my lips and nodded.

There was no side entrance; Kit led the way to the front, and my steps slowed at the window. The two drawings he’d already done were framed and displayed in the center. No prices were listed, just a smallComing Soonsign underneath.

“Aurora…”

My head snapped in his direction, finding him holding the door and waiting for me.

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