Page 47 of To Catch A Rogue
"Should. I'm considerably narrower in the hips, it seems," he mused.
She already knew that.
At eighteen, he'd been thin and whittled down to lean muscle. The shoulders still disconcerted her—where had they come from?—but it was the hard muscled plane of his ass in a tight set of breeches that seemed to have seared itself into her memory.
"How partial are you to your skin?"
"I'm—"
Below him, the sound of timber splintering echoed up the chimney.
Their eyes met.
Then she was hauling on his shirt, her thighs straining as she fought to drag him past the brick. Charlie grunted and pushed, and suddenly he was through. Lark had to scramble higher to allow him to find purchase on the ledge of brick that had caused him so much trouble.
"Shit," he whispered. "I think I'm bleeding."
It would draw the vampire as surely as a shark in blood-churned waters.
"Do you think you can continue?" she asked, glad he couldn't see her hot cheeks right now. "The second we're out of here, we'll have to sprint across the rooftops."
"Sounds like old times."
It did. "Let's hope you're as fast as you were then, before you expanded at an unnatural rate."
Charlie gave her a push from below, his hand splaying across her ass. "I'm not the one holding up the line. And as much as I appreciate the view, I'd rather be on the roof, breathing fresh air. I like my balls right where they are, thank you very much."
Lark scrambled up the chimney, cursing him under her breath. There was a grate at the top, but she smashed it open with the heel of her palm and escaped. They could close it after and hopefully trap the monstrosity below them.
She could still feel the touch of Charlie's hand, as if it had branded itself on her skin.
But there was a little part of her that knew it didn't just sound like old times, it wasexactlylike those days when they'd shared a camaraderie she'd never found with anyone else. Like slipping into a comfortable old robe, or rereading a favorite book, she and Charlie just slotted into place like two halves of a whole.
Except there was an uncomfortable edge beneath the banter now.
Because she didn't just want to box his ears anymore, or punch him in the ribs when he invariably said something stupid.
No, now she wanted to kiss him.
And she was fairly certain the feeling was mutual.
Chapter 10
They made it back to the diplomat’s house with no sign of the vampire, thank goodness. Either Dido had recalled it, or it hadn't fit up the chimney.
Charlie helped Lark slip through the window into his bedchamber. The front door was far too visible, and after the trap Dido had just set, he didn't want anyone watching the house to know they were home just yet.
"Well, that was fun," he said with a wink. "We nearly got eaten by a vampire."
"You're insane. What part of 'we nearly got eaten by a vampire' was enjoyable?"
"The part where we didn't!" He swept her up in his arms and swung her around, buoyed by exhilaration. There was nothing quite like the thrill of a chase, or a dangerous fight to get the blood pounding through his veins.
Lark's makeshift cloak swirled around them before it tore loose. Then he was spinning slowly to a halt, letting her toes hit the ground. His hands slipped on the silk of her bodice, thumbs stroking down her sides. Lark's eyes glittered as she looked up at him, and suddenly it wasn't just exhilaration that flooded through his veins, but need.
He wanted her.
It hadn't always been the case, but it was real now and he couldn't find a way to put it into words. The innocence of childhood had long since slipped away, leaving the pair of them trapped in this moment of uncertainty. No matter how much he tried to pretend nothing had changed, every moment of camaraderie held a certain edge to it these days.
