Page 8 of Never Let Me Go

Marisa told herself she wasn’t going to whine. She was alive. She wasn’t even hurt. Jeff had created this extremely effective safe room. They were lucky to be where they were.

“I understand.” Being this close to him resurrected feelings she knew she should fight. She’d spent a year and a half getting over Jeff Grainger. One lousy tornado wasn’t going to undo all that hard work. She wouldn’t allow it. As a grown-ass woman, she could stand on her own two feet in an emergency.

And she would. In a few minutes.

She hadn’t meant to flirt with him. Of course not. The words had come out wrong. That’s all.

Jeff Grainger was nothing to her.

When she rested her cheek against his chest, she heard him sigh. “Maybeyoushould kissme,” he said. “So we’re clear on the consent thing.”

Her stomach flipped hard. “I don’t think so,” she whispered, already imagining it.

He nuzzled her nose with his. “Please,” he cajoled.

“This is stupid.” Something had happened to the air in her lungs. Maybe she and Jeff were slowly being deprived of oxygen. That could make people do impulsive things.

She put one hand behind his neck and pulled his head down so her lips could find his. “So stupid,” she whispered. And then she kissed him.

Wow.Eighteen long months had passed, and still she remembered how he tasted. Like Christmas and her birthday and cotton candy at the fair.

Her bones went liquid with pleasure, and her heart raced. His lips were warm but closed. His body was rigid.

“Kiss me back,” she demanded. “This was your idea.”

His thumb caressed her cheek as he exhaled jerkily. “We won’t be able to put the genie back in the bottle. You know that, right?”

She pulled away a little and smiled wryly. “We’ve been through a traumatic, world altering event. Don’t we need some kind of life-affirming action to make us feel alive?”

Jeff’s deep brown eyes and wavy brown hair, coupled with a toned body, made him a very handsome man. He studied her face. “Maybe we do,” he muttered. And thenhetook control.

Though he held her carefully, as if she was fragile and breakable, his kiss offered no quarter. He ravaged her mouth, taking and giving and taking until she was literally breathless.

“Jeff...” She whispered his name, falling into the madness that had caught them up on their first date.

His tongue stroked hers, tangling, caressing. “You make me so damn hot. Come here, sweet woman.” He sat in a chair and pulled her across his lap. “Let me feel you.”

Before she could do more than gasp, he had his hand under her shirt and her breast between his fingers plucking at the nipple.

Marisa moaned, lifting into his touch. “I didn’t know how good it could be,” she said. “If I had, I might have agreed to that blind date a lot sooner.”

Jeff frowned. “What do you mean,sooner?”

“Jilly had been badgering me since Christmas to go out with you, but I thought you were too...um...”

“Too what?” he demanded, his scowl dark.

“Too overtly masculine. Too arrogant. I thought you would overpower me.”

Now he looked appalled. “Is that what you think happened?”

He scooted her off his lap and lurched to his feet, putting the width of the safe between them, not watching as she straightened her clothes.

“Of course not,” she said.

But he didn’t respond. He stood, back stiff, facing away from her as he fiddled with his phone.

Marisa curled her legs beneath her in her own camp chair and tried to rest. She shouldn’t have said anything. Now she had offended him orsomething. Which was exactly why she didn’t date. She was bad at it.

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