“Just…making sure.”
She doesn’t ask me what I’m making sure of, and I don’t know that I could answer if she did. There are so many warring thoughts and feelings, so many opposing instincts that are battling for dominance.
I want to kiss her again.
I want to hold her.
I want to push her away and keep myself safe.
I want to pull her close and keephersafe.
“You interrupted me,” she says finally. “I’m not—I wasn’t done being mad at you.”
“I didn’t hear any protests,” I say, and it might be a good thing that she can’t see my smile. “But you bit my ear. You pinched me. Did you need more?”
“Yes,” she says. “I wanted to use my words instead of resorting to violence.”
“That’s fine,” I say. “You can keep going.” The bridge of my nose presses into her collarbone as I speak, a sharp ridge I want to trace with my tongue. I tighten my grip on her upper arms, trying to ignore the shiver that courses through her at my touch.
Intoxicating. She’s intoxicating.
“I—you can’t—” She swallows, something I feel and hear rather than see. “It’s hard to tell you off when you’re being like this.”
My sigh is heavy, but it’s also accompanied at last by a sense of relief. It finally seems to be sinking into my system that Juniper is okay. “All right,” I say, lifting my head. “Go ahead, then.”
She looks pointedly at my hands on her upper arms. “Are you moving those, or are they staying?”
Ha. Let’s not get crazy.
“They’re staying unless you want them to move,” I say.
Juniper tilts her head as she looks up at me in a way that makes my pulse spike all over again; this is a curious look she’s giving me, intrigued, searching for…something.
“You know,” she says slowly, a faint smile curling her lips—lips still red from being kissed. “I have this theory about you. And I think you might end up proving me right.”
“Of course I won’t,” I say, fully aware that I’m spewing nonsense. “Now are you going to be mad at me?”
“Yes,” she says immediately. “Just don’t be obnoxious, Aiden. Don’t shout at me, and don’t make assumptions.”
“Is it an assumption if it’s true?” I say, my eyes narrowing on her. “Because I have it on very good authority that Gus told you about Sandy and you immediately booked it out of there to come here.”
“Gus is a little snitch, I see,” she mutters under her breath.
I clamp down on the laugh that wants to escape. “I will try not to make assumptions,” I say instead, “if you will promise not to run recklessly into situations that could be dangerous.”
“Ididn’tgo recklessly into a dangerous situation,” she says, rolling her eyes. “That’s mypoint.I hid in the library.”
“You did,” I say with a nod. “Afteryou went to the dangerous situation.”
“Well, it’s not like I could just go sit at home, either,” she says, fisting her hands on her hips as some of that spark returns to her eyes. “And it’s not like I was going to go around asking people stupid questions. I’m not dumb. I have a well-developed sense of self-preservation. Thus”—she gestures at our surroundings—“the library. So don’t be a jerk.”
I swallow, my eyes dropping to her lips. “I want to kiss you again.”
She blinks in surprise.
“Except…” I say slowly, and now my heart is starting to pound for a different reason. “There are things we need to talk about first.”
Juniper sighs. “Just one more, then, before you overthink everything.” And before I can respond, she goes up on her tiptoes and presses her lips firmly to mine.