Page 52 of Stone Cold Touch

He inhaled sharply as he moved his hand to the thin strap of my tank top. His eyes never left mine. “Can I see the rest of her?”

My heart rate kicked into cardiac territory. Was I dreaming? Did I fall down the stairs and crack my head open? Seemed more likely than this happening. Seeing the rest of Bambi meant seeing the rest ofme.Or at least half of the rest of me.

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. My gaze focused on the outline of his mouth, fixating on the way his lips parted, and I couldn’t help but wonder how they felt—how they tasted.

Only in the distant part of my mind did I realize that I wanted to taste him and not his soul.

Bambi flicked her tail along my waist, as if she was impatient with all of this and wanted to be shown off. Unable to find the courage to speak, I nodded again.

Zayne’s feverish gaze lowered as he slipped the strap down. The top was so loose and thin that it took the littlest effort to move. Within seconds, the straps ended up on my wrists, the material pooling where my hands were clasped together on my stomach.

I felt his stare as he drank in the detail of Bambi and everything else—every part of me that was exposed. It was like a caress as his gaze tracked over the long, elegant stretch of her neck between my breasts, to the way she coiled just below my rib cage.

“Layla,” he rasped, and the sound curled my toes.

I stopped breathing as his hand followed Bambi’s path, and the yearning and hunger I was feeling rose until every part of my body felt like a live wire. Everything outside this room ceased to exist—every problem, concern or issue. It was all gone as his hand moved again and my back arched off the bed. A breathy sound escaped me, mingling with Zayne’s ragged breath.

His touch was light, reverent as he explored the layout of my body. He did so with such delicacy it was as though it was his first time, though I knew—at least I thought—that that couldn’t be the case. With his looks and his personality, there had to have been times when he was out hunting—there had to have been girls.

But it didn’t matter as he shifted down, his head lowering close to where Bambi’s head rested. There was a good chance this could go horribly wrong, but my hands fisted together and I bit down on my lip so hard a metallic taste filled my mouth at the first whispered touched of his lips against—

The bedroom door swung open, slamming into the wall with a force that rattled the room like a clap of thunder. Zayne sprung off me and onto the floor in seconds. He whirled around and I sat up, tugging up my shirt with my heart in my throat. We were so busted, and we were going to be in so much trouble.

But when I lifted my gaze, there was no one in the doorway, nothing behind the door except the long, dark hall and all the shadows of the night.

Zayne crossed the room, grasping the edge of the door as he peered out into the hallway. As he straightened and closed the door, he shook his head. “Nothing’s here.”

I shivered as a cold, almost icy breeze wafted over my skin. I glanced around the room, seeing nothing abnormal. “That’s...” I cleared my throat. “That’s weird.”

He thrust his fingers through his hair—fingers that had just been touching me. He turned back to me, his chest rising and falling heavily. He started to take a step toward me, but halted. The way he looked at me...my entire body flushed. “I... I should probably leave.”

I didn’t want him to. I wanted him to come back to me, but it wouldn’t be smart and the most intelligent thing would be to let him walk away from this room. Tugging the blanket up, I force myself to nod.

Zayne stared at me a moment longer and then swallowed hard before he turned and quietly slipped out of the room. I stayed where I was as the cold reality of the situation came back. No matter how I felt for him or him for me, pursuing anything with Zayne was dangerous.

And it could never be.

14

“I knew it!”

I stared at Stacey as she peered into the tiny mirror attached to her locker door and combed her fingers through her bangs. The need to talk to someone about what went down with Zayne had led me to practically tackle Stacey first thing Monday morning. I’d told her everything as quietly and as quickly as possible, starting with Danika and ending with all the bared-chested goodness. Minus the tattoo part.

“How did you know it?”

She passed me a knowing look. “Well, the way he treated Roth, it was pretty obvious that the guy isn’t into you being with anyone else.”

I stepped out of the way of a girl hurrying down the hall. “He just doesn’t like Roth.”

Stacey rolled her eyes. “And it makes sense why he’d finally make a move. He’s got competition.”

My lips formed an O. I hadn’t really thought of it that way. Could it be that Zayne was finally seeing me as something other than the little girl hiding in the closet because of Roth? Or had he always seen me differently and was acting upon it now that he thought someone else was in the picture?

I told myself it didn’t matter because we couldn’t be together. Abbot would stroke out and we couldn’t even kiss, but still, it occupied my thoughts as we started toward biology.

“It shouldn’t be so hard for you to believe that Zayne is attracted to you. You’re a really pretty girl, Layla. The kind that guys—”

“Don’t say the kind that guys want to be in their pockets, because that’s just weird.”

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