Page 38 of Slapshot Baby

"Kai, I can't."

"Give me one bad reason," he says in a low tone, "and mean it."

I open my mouth to be clever.

His hand comes up to my face. His palm cups my jaw. His thumb slowly traces my cheekbone, and every nerve ending in my body fires at once.

He kisses me.

Not the way you kiss a friend you're testing boundaries with.

He kisses me like he's been starving for it. His mouth opens mine, hungry, no finesse, all need. His hand slides from my jaw into my hair, gripping the base of my knot and tilting my head back.

The sound that breaks out of him is low and starving.

It lights a fuse at the base of my spine.

His other arm hooks around my waist and pulls me up out of the chair until I'm standing against him, pressed chest to chest.

A sound escapes me. Low, needy, humiliating.

His tongue sweeps against my lower lip and I open for him without deciding to. He tastes like chocolate and want. His teeth graze my bottom lip, catching it, pulling gently before releasing.

I grab the front of his henley with both fists, pulling him closer when I should be pushing him away.

He groans against my mouth. The sound vibrates through my chest and pools between my legs.

His hand tightens in my hair, tilting me deeper, and I match him. My tongue meets his, my body arching into him. I'm kissing him back with every ounce of hunger I've been suffocating.

His hips press forward. I feel him hard against my stomach, and my brain short-circuits. Heat floods down my spine, between my thighs, into every place his body touches mine.

My hand slides up his chest, over his shoulder, nails dragging against the back of his neck.

He makes a rough sound into my mouth that turns my knees liquid.

His lips move to my jaw, my neck. The spot below my ear that he found six weeks ago in his living room and apparently found again through pure instinct.

I gasp, fingers digging into his shoulders, my hips rocking against him once before I catch myself.

"Kai." I'm breathless. "We can't..."

"We already are."

His mouth finds mine again. Slower this time but deeper, wetter, his tongue stroking against mine in a rhythm that makes my stomach clench.

I whimper against his lips and hate myself for it.

The door opens.

"Kai, Mom sent... oh."

Mira stands in the doorway, a bag dangling from one hand, her dark hair loose around her wide eyes. Her mouth forms a small O.

Kai doesn't let go of me. His arm stays locked around my waist, his forehead pressing against mine. His breathing is ragged.

So is mine.

Mira backs out slowly. "I'll just... yeah. I'll be in the hallway for a while. A long while."