Page 64 of Ricochet

“Anything?” I echo.

He leans forward, pressing his forehead against mine, forcing me to meet his gaze. “Anything, baby.”

Baby?

Why do I love that so much?

I become very aware of my breathing as his woodsy scent fills my lungs. Ishouldprobably ask him to untie my hands, but I don’t think that’s what I want most right now.

If it’s the night of truths and secrets…

“I’ve never kissed anyone before,” I admit, the quiet words teasing the space between our mouths.

He moves back just enough to break the connection of our skin to replace it with another. His thumb comes up, lightly tracing my bottom lip with a caress so delicate it sends shivers down my spine. His eyes zero in on it.

“I want to kiss you so fucking badly.”

“Please,” I whisper breathlessly.

“Tell me one thing.”

I almost groan, but I rein it in. “What?”

He drops his hand, and I immediately miss his touch. His eyes darken. “Why did you hesitate?”

My brows draw together, reminding me of the pain still pounding away in my head. “What do you mean?”

“I begged you to give me a reason.” With that, I’m reminded ofhispain too. “You had one, and you hesitated. Why the fuck would you do that to me?”

“I guess…only for a moment…I thought…” I have to swallow back my shame. “I thought it wouldn’t be so bad to die.”

His face falls. His body trembles. He’s about to crumble all over again.

“I changed my mind,” I add quickly.

“Good,” he lets out on a relieved breath. “Because you wouldn’t have gotten what you wanted anyway.”

All of this confusion he’s making me feel is only causing my head to hurt worse.

“There’s no way I could’ve killed you, Callum. Not even in my worst nightmares. I panicked when I did this.” His fingertips brush over my temple. “And this was desperation.”

His fingers move to my throat. When he pulls them back, there’s a dab of blood on his forefinger. He places it to his lips and licks it off. My cock twitches.

“I was trying to scare you because I was desperate. I thought I could bleed a reason out of you. I didn’t want to go to prison, but I’d rather go to prison than kill you. I’d leave my mom and my sister to fend for themselves. I’d give up everything for you.”

My chest fills with something I don’t recognize. Whatever it is fills me so completely, expanding into every empty hole inside of me, every crevice, pushing down those shadows into the deepest pits of their abyss.

“Stone, please.”

I’m not even embarrassed when it comes out as a whimper. I want to feel his lips on mine.

Ineedhis kiss.

Even if it’s poison.

“Besides,” he says as he brings his thumb back to my bottom lip. My breaths come in pants beneath the tender brushing of skin on skin. “It would’ve been a tragedy to kill you before you could have your first kiss.”

When it comes, it’s nothing like how I imagined it’d be.

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