Page 71 of Rosie and the Beast Next Door

He nodded. “Okay, that makes sense.” His eyes twinkled with mischief as he ran his nose along my cheekbone. His bottom lip touched my top lip, and I let out a whimper as he pulled back again.

“Like at the restaurant or—”

I clutched a fistful of his shirt and yanked him down to me, pressing my lips to his before he could finish. Dylan immediately tangled his fingers in the back of my hair and pulled me even closer to him. Sparks flew behind my closed eyes as he tugged me onto his lap and kept kissing me.

Oh my gosh.

I was kissing Dylan Savage.

It was a wild field of sensation. The softness of his beard against my chin and the tips of his hair in between my fingers. His masculine scent that twisted and twirled around me as I breathed him in. How his hand trailed a fiery line down my back to grip my waist and hold me in place (as if I ever wanted to move again.)

His kissing slowed, and he pulled back, his forehead pressed against mine, both of us out of breath. The sounds of wind rustling through the reeds and birds chirping in the trees around us slowly came back to me. I blinked, and I was once again back in a graveyard in Winterhaven.

Sitting on Dylan’s lap.

I kept my arms tight around his neck. I had no intention of moving anytime soon. “I think we need to practice more,” I informed him.

“Yeah, we do.” He grimaced.

Wait. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. “Why do you say it like that?”

“Just … I’d give it a four.”

I gasped and pulled back from him, but his arms looped around my waist held me in place. “Are you rating my kissing?” My voice was a little shriller than I intended it to be near the end there.

He tilted his head to the side way too innocently. “I thought that’s what the whole point was.”

“No. My kissing is at least an eight.”

“It’s impossible to rate your own kissing. You’re going to have to take my word for it.”

I smacked at his hands, and he released me. I stood and faced him, my hands on my hips. His eyes were alight with amusement.

“That was definitely a nine.”

He shook his head grimly. “I’m afraid not.”

“Kiss me again,” I ordered him.

He laughed, and stood, towering over me. “I’m kind of hungry.”

“Dylan!”

He looped an arm around my shoulders and kissed the top of my head.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“We’ll have plenty of opportunities to kiss in all the public places you want to kiss in.”

I huffed through my nose, and he laughed again. “Come on. We have plenty of time to work on your kissing technique. Let’s go get some pizza before it’s all gone.”

I lightly pinched his side as he continued to chuckle but let him lead me from his graveyard hideout and toward the center of town.

“It was totally a ten,” I grumbled.

Chapter 28

Dylan

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