Page 46 of Solitude

Winnie’s eyes flicker down to my lips, and she nods quickly, eager. Like she’s dying to feel my lips on hers in the same way I’m dying for a taste of her.

My thumb smooths over her bottom lip, a streak of that cherry-colored lipstick following in its wake. Smears of red over her chin and nearing her jaw. Mascara running down her cheeks. Her eyelashes fluttering as she waits for me to lean closer. I don’t release her hands yet, though I don’t think it would matter much. She’s not fighting me.

“What are you waiting for?” Winnie asks, frustration lacing her voice. “Kiss me, Beck.”

“Give me a minute,” I beg. “I want to memorize the way you look right now.”

Winnie’s breath ghosts over my lips, and I feel goosebumps erupt over my skin. “How do I look right now?”

“Wrecked.” My hand slides down over her jaw until it’s wrapped around her throat, my thumb under her chin, and I use it to tilt her head farther back. “On the side of the road dressed like a fucking elf begging me to kiss you. You look like a dream.”

My dream. But I don’t say that.

Because her eyes are glazed over with desire and longing. I can practically feel the way she’s hanging on every word I say. I can feel it in her limbs I’m restricting, in her pulse point under my fingers, in the way she trusts me to hold her.

“You look like one day you could be mine, Winnie.”

Now she fights me, tugging her hands free as a noise I want to swallow falls from her lips.

When her hands flatten against my chest, I grab her hip and tug her flush against me, relishing the gasp she lets out as she falls into me so easily.

My lips seal over Winnie’s softly, hesitantly, like at any moment she could push me away despite the way her fingers are curled so tightly into my hoodie it’s like she’s trying to sink beneath my skin.

I want that. I want her lips against mine, her hands onmy body, and her scent clinging to my skin. I want to know she’s as gone on me as I am for her.

She kisses both like it’s the first time she’s ever done it and like it’s the only thing that’ll save her from death. Winnie is not hesitant or tentative as she molds her lips to mine. She takes control of everything as I contemplate the depths of her need for me, and it’s not until her tongue brushes my bottom lip that I snap back into myself.

My hand slides around her head until I’m gripping her nape, holding her close as I nip at her mouth and take back the control she hadn’t even realized she snatched away from me. My other hand grips her waist, squeezing as she mimics the way my lips move over hers.

When I scrape my teeth over her bottom lip, she does it back. When I slip my tongue in her mouth, she hooks hers over mine. When I suck her lip in between my teeth, pull on the flesh and bite it until she’s gasping into my mouth, she does the same to me.

Like the entire kiss is her way of learning.

I pull away breathlessly and rest my forehead against hers, eyes closed. The rain has slowed down some, but when I feel Winnie let out a full body shiver, I know it’s time to end the moment.

“Come on,” I say as I drop my hands from her body and step away. “You’re freezing.”

Her lips form into the most delicious pout I’ve ever seen, and it takes every bit of self-control I have not to pull her back into my arms and devour her mouth all over again.

Instead, I grab her hand and lead her the rest of the way to her house. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

Glancing back at her, I can tell from the wholesome, naïve look on her face that she’s not asking in a sexy way to be coy and sly.

I stare straight ahead at the brick mailbox that marks her house. “Like you want me to kiss you again.”

“I do.”

“Winnie…”

She spins to face me, walking backwards toward her front door with my hand still tightly grasped in hers. She smiles shyly. “Do you want to come inside, Beck?”

What kind of question is that?

I keep walking toward her until her back hits the front door, a thud reverberating in the eery silence of the night, and I realize I’d do anything to have her staring up at me like this for the rest of my life.

Her golden eyes are darker right now, hooded with desire and vulnerability.

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