Page 42 of Lamb

Ash stared for a long while, her eyes jumping back and forth between my own as if searching for the lie, for the false confidence hidden behind them. She would find none. There had been many limits I had yet to reach; all I lacked was simply motivation. The task would not be an easy one; the ability to find means and create opportunities would be difficult.

But it wasn’t impossible.

Even a crack could destroy a dam. All I had to do was find that crack. And if I couldn’t find one, I’d make one.

“You are delusional,” Ash blurted, shock dwindling into disbelief, as a sharp, barked laugh burst out of her chest. “You almost had me for a second there.” She slapped her hand against my chest before using it to right herself back onto her feet.

She slid her hand back under my arm voluntarily, while she righted her glasses with the other before resting it over her chest. “I thought I was going to have a heart attack.”

I raised my brow at her, which only seemed to cement her misunderstanding.

“See? I knew you were joking.” She laughed, twirling her hand in my face. “Your face tells all.”

“It does?” I frowned.

“Yup.”

I didn’t give her a moment. I pressed my arm to the small of her back, spinning and pressing her body into mine. Her gasp filled my mouth as I pressed my lips down to hers. Then I reached up, winding my hand around the back of her neck, tilting her head, giving me access to that shocked, delicious mouth of hers. I heard her hat slip from her head, dropping to the floor behind us, but I didn’t care, and neither did she as I slid my tongue between her lips, pulling hers into mine, our warmth mingling together.

A noise rumbled out of my chest, and she moaned in response, tilting hers toward mine as I fought to restrain my strength. My hands burned with the urge to tighten around her, as if I could even possibly bring her closer to me, desperate to merge her body with mine.

Her hands tightened into the lapels of my coat, dragging me forward, and I obliged with a step between her feet. Warmth wrapped around my leg as her thighs straddled my own and I almost dropped to my knees then and there.

Feeling my dick straining painfully against my zipper, I broke the kiss. Her hot, panting breaths rolled over my damp lips, and I found our eyes locked together. Even through her glasses, I could see her wide, dark eyes glossy and soft as they stared up deliriously into my own.

“If you think my face is telling you I am joking,” I whispered, darting my tongue out to swipe one more sweet taste of her lips, “then I will tell you the truth with my body instead.”

Ash swore, jerking her hands away from my coat like she’d been scalded. She slid back off my leg, and I almost groaned as her warmth slipped away. She spun from me, jerking her hands to her face and head as she realized her hat was missing. Turning in circles, she flapped until she spotted it on the floor, snatching it from the ground and snapping it onto her head, the rim pressed tight down over her face. It hid everything except those swollen pink lips, her teeth raking over them. “Do not do that in public, you bastard. Who knows who is looking at us!”

“I didn’t think you were the shy type,” I purred, trying to close that tiny difference.

Ash escaped a step back, a pink blush working its way down from her cheeks to the small, exposed flesh of her neck. I yearned to run my teeth across it.

“That is not what I meant,” Ash hissed, shoving at my chest. It was pathetic and barely enough to move me. If I’d been a hoping man, I’d think it was her excuse to touch me again. “I am a wanted fugitive, you twat.”

“Ah, right.” I nodded, looking about the half-dead mall. Even in a city, if you came early enough in the day, people were sparse. “There is that.”

“You are seriously an imbecile,” Ash huffed, turning her coat collar up, one of my thick wool scarfs now tied tightly around her neck, and stalked as best as she could with one weak foot deeper into the mall.

I watched her hobble for a while, a light heat fluttering over my chest, reaching my burning lips. I shifted, trying to adjust my trousers for a little breathing room, but my appendage was not ready to go down. With my eyes tracing her fleeting form, it twitched.

“I’m screwed.” I laughed, the humor not lost on me as this toxic, traumatized woman tottered away.

I jogged after her, and she fought me for a moment before allowing me to capture her hand with my arm, unable to look at me as she waited for that soft pink blush to settle from her skin. I looked forward to making it reappear.

I should have known that this moment, though small and fleeting, had been the point of my downfall. Should have known this woman would be the end of us both. If I had been a smarter man, I’d have turned and walked away.

I was not a smarter man.

Chapter Twelve

ASH

“Iwant to go home,” I grumbled for what felt like the millionth time.

Lamb did not care.

“What about this one?” Lamb countered, raising a red vase that had caught his eye. He handled the bizarre-shaped pottery. It was wide in the middle and shrunk to a tiny point at the base. I doubted the thing would even be able to stand on its own, never mind with flowers in it.

---