Page 80 of Known By You
“Yes.”
I grinned, but looked away so he couldn’t see it. His certainty did things to me.
After unlocking the door, we ascended quickly, thenentered the small apartment and I slid the deadbolt in place once we were both inside.
I dropped my keys and purse on the counter and turned to see him tossing his jacket over the back of a barstool and turning to me.
Something about his attention felt oddly predatory. My pulse skittered in my veins, and I exhaled slowly in an attempt to calm myself.
He took a step toward me, hands at his side. “We’ve been moving very, very slowly.”
I nodded as I stepped back. “We have.”
He advanced again. “I would like a little more.”
I took another step back, right in line with his movements. “Just a little?”
His next step put him in my space, his body only inches from mine. I backed up until my shoulder blades hit the panel of the door and his hands grasped my waist.
“At least a little. Maybe more. But not until you tell me you want that, too.” He leaned down, our lips millimeters apart now.
“I do.”
“You do what?”
His tone was silk over gravel, somehow smooth and rough at the same time. No longer was this Cheery Army Barbie. This was a man whose entire being spelled out his desire and there had never been anything on the planet more attractive to me.
Not simply that he was taking charge and guiding us toward what he wanted—what webothwanted—but that this was the same man who had a heart so big it held dozens of people, the same man who’d rescued a little black kitten and who wasn’t afraid to support the people he loved ferociously.
The same man who’d been determined to show me how full life could be, who cared for me in small ways and with kindnesses he didn’t even realize were special. And the same man who refused to be felled by those who mistreated him or by setbacks he couldn’t control.
All of that wrapped into the person in front of me, whose hands were inching up my sides in a firm grip, his nose gliding along the line of my jaw, and waiting for my response.
It was lethal.
And I had no choice but to answer him truthfully, dream or no.
“I want more with you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Elizabeth
When Kenny’s lips touched mine, I didn’t hold back.
And hallelujah, neither did he.
He teased with soft, short presses and I responded in kind. When he coaxed my mouth open, I willingly complied. His hands burned a path long my ribs, then skipped to angle my head so he could take the kiss even deeper.
My hands were on him, too, snaking under the layer of his button-down and then the soft cotton undershirt beneath it to press my freezing hands into the warm, taut flesh of his abs. He gasped and broke our kiss, a laugh ringing out between us before he bent and hauled me over his shoulder.
“Hey!” I shout-laughed as he jogged into the living room, and I marveled at both how easily he moved with an entire human over his shoulder, and his joyous cackle.
He might’ve been intense and extremely sexy while doing so, but he was stillhim.
I loved it.
I love—Nope. Not going there.
