Page 45 of Neat
But he stopped himself.
With less than an inch between us, Logan stopped, his lips parting, a shaky breath slipping from the new space. His fingers curled in my hair, and I closed my eyes, pulling his shirt once more until the man wearing it followed.
“I saidkiss me,” I urged, the words whispered against his mouth, our lips brushing now, eliciting that same electric charge I’d felt in the storage closet.
Logan took one last trembling breath.
And then he answered my plea.
Logan
I’d fantasized about it for years, what it would be like if I ever got the chance to kiss Mallory Scooter. In each and every scenario, I was timid and nervous, overwhelmed with a mix of fear and excitement. The possibility that I could ever actually taste her seemed so preposterous to me that all my dreams consisted mostly of disbelief.
So, when my lips crashed down on hers, capturing her next breath and a moan inside my mouth, I waited for those thoughts to hit.
Oh, my God.
This can’t be happening.
Holy shit, it’s happening.
I’m kissing Mallory Scooter.
I can’tbelieveI’m kissing Mallory Scooter.
But none of those thoughts came.
Not when our lips met. Not when her hands slid up my chest, wrapping around my neck. Not when I tightened my grip in her hair, pulling her in, kissing her with such force I was sure I’d bruise both our lips.
There was no disbelief, no uncertainty, no nerves or timidness to be found.
I kept my lips pressed to hers as I waited for theothervoices I expected to hear, the ones that would whisperno, stop, you can’t, you shouldn’t.
But again, they never came.
All I felt was a profound sense ofright, and the most powerful wave of possession I’d ever experienced in my life.
Yes.
Finally.
Take.
Mine.
Those were the thoughts on repeat in my mind as I left one hand in her hair, the other sliding down to grab her by the hip and move her fully into my lap. Her legs straddled me, the warmth of her thighs surrounding my hips, the heat of her center calling to the growing bulge between my legs.
She gasped for air when I finally broke the kiss, only long enough for each of us to take a breath before my lips captured hers again, hard and urgent. My tongue broke the barrier of her lips this time, seeking hers, the taste of paint and sweet tea mixing on my taste buds.
Mallory didn’t seem to have a single voice in her head warning her to stop, either. Her hands were in my hair, knocking the ball cap I’d been wearing to the ground as she tangled her fingertips in the strands and tugged, owning me in the same way I was owning her. She bucked her hips, rubbing the seam of her leggings over my erection, a lustful moan rolling through her at the contact.
My hands found her hips then, squeezing, locking her in place to keep myself from coming before anything even started. My body was reacting to hers in a way it’d never reacted to any other woman’s in my life. It was like two magnets being held away from each other for years, finally being released and clashing together in the middle, touching for the first time, feeling what it’s like to be whole.
I broke the kiss, biting and sucking my way over her jaw, her neck, up to capture her earlobe between my teeth. I sucked it gently, breathing a hot, wanting breath there that made her shiver, her thighs clenching around me.
“Take me upstairs,” she breathed, and the words were barely out of her mouth before I was kissing her again, lifting us both up from the floor with her still wrapped around my waist.
I stumbled a bit, sneakers sliding over the mess of paint we’d stained the floor with as I blindly made my way to the staircase in the back that led up to her studio apartment. One hand gripped the rail to keep us from falling while the other held her against me, her arms tight around my neck, our mouths bruising each other in an effort to get closer, to taste more, to feeleverything.
