Page 131 of The Forbidden Note

Rather than answer, I stare at her. The wind picks up her curls and tosses them all over, making them look like sentient fingers beckoning me closer. The smell of her perfume reminds me that she’s the worst kind of addiction.

I was wrong.

Earlier.

When I said I wasn’t scared.

I think I’ve found something that terrifies me.

It’s her.

The way she makes me feel.

The way she takes over me.

It’s like she’s drilled into my head, like she’s clogging every pore, climbing up my throat, smothering me.

“Don’t look. Don’t look,” she murmurs to herself, closing her eyes. Brown fingers dig into the dirt on either side of her legs. She’s trying to anchor herself into the ground.

I sit there, watching her, and I realize that whatever my cure is… it’s probably inside her too.

My poison.

My antidote.

Either way, it’s out of my hands.

“Zane,” she murmurs, “how about we—”

I grab the back of her neck and drive her toward me, crushing the rest of her words beneath my lips. Her taste is the first thing that pierces my brain.

Soft. Sweet.

Wine.

She was drinking wine during dinner and earlier in the treehouse.

I intend it to be a quick kiss. She didn’t take my hand.

She can’t even take my hand in the freaking dark with no one around.

But the moment she moves her palm from the ground to fist it around my shirt, there’s no stopping the riptide.

Pieces of sand and stone fall from her fingers and skitter down the front of my shirt. I hear it like music. Like a fantasy-inspired drum chime.

I wrap an arm around her waist and gather her to me, feeling like I already jumped off this stupid cliff. Feeling like I’m falling.

She moans and I know she’s taking that plunge with me.

I part her lips with my tongue, sweeping into her mouth and staking my claim. Her tongue wars with mine and she twists her head to the side, deepening the kiss and leaving me wanting so much more.

My hands skate under her shirt, burning every inch of skin I can find. I skim over her bra. Heat sears me when I feel lace. She arches into me, almost begging for my touch.

Time suspends until it feels like we’re both locked in eternity. But when I start pushing her backward, my hand brushes against a stone and sends it skittering over the edge of the cliff.

I can’t hear the shatter.

That’s what draws me out of my lust-filled haze.

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