Page 185 of Tempting-

---

We lie in silence for minutes. Until I can't feel the bliss of his touch. Until I can't feel anything but the weight of this secret crushing my chest.

It's everywhere. In the air. In the moonlight. In the soft cotton sheets. In his fingertips.

On my lips.

"Kay." His lips brush my ear. My neck. "Whatever it is, you don't have to talk about it."

I nod.

He kisses me again. It's a sweet kiss. NotI want youorI need youorI'm going to fuck you again.

It'sI love you.

"But you can." He draws circles on my shoulder. "Anything."

"I want to." I do. Really, I do. My desire is so big and bright it's casting everything else in glare. Every single one of my thoughts is tuned to this frequency.

"Yeah?" He places a kiss on my shoulder.

"But I don't want you to look at me differently."

"I won't."

"How can you promise that?"

"Did you kill someone?"

"No."

"Do you really want to fuck Dean?"

My laugh breaks up the tension in my shoulders. "Murder and lust for Dean are equally bad in your eyes?"

"Fuck no." He presses his palm into my stomach to pull me closer. "Lust for Dean is a million times worse."

"Really?"

"You have no fucking idea what it does to me, the way he flirts with you."

But I do. I see the way his jaw cricks, the way his fists form, the way his eyes fill with jealousy. "He does it to get to you."

"It works."

"It did work. We're here."

"You're giving him credit for this?"

"Well... doesn't he deserve a little?"

"Maybe." The playfulness falls from his voice. It's back to soft and sweet. "But I'm not giving him credit."

"That doesn't seem fair."

"What is?"

"True." None of this is fair. Not that I need a pill to feel okay. Not that Grandma is sick. Not that my parents are middle class when Brendon and Emma's are rich.

But it's not fair that their parents are gone. Or that I was born smart. Or with a nice figure.

---