Page 22 of Chasing Danger

“Thanks for this,” I whispered to him, conscious of how my voice echoed off the metal. “You didn’t have to go this far, but Rowan is having a blast. It’s been so long since he got out of the house. He’s going to be talking about this day for months.”

D’Angelo leaned over so his mouth hovered near my ear, keeping his voice to a whisper as well. “Maybe it’s selfish to say, but I didn’t do it for him.”

Before I could respond, he tugged me by my wrist into another side room. Just as cramped as everywhere else on a submarine, it seemed to have once been the weapons room. My back pressed against the wall between two empty missile silos.

D’Angelo wasn’t even trying to crowd me, but the size of the room didn’t give him much choice. Surrounded by metal walls on all sides, his much larger frame towered over me and blocked out the submarine’s minimal lighting.

He ran a hand through his hair, dark strands slipping through tan fingers. Up close, I could see the hints of gray at his temple that Ashes had pointed out. The thick dark hair did a good job hiding the color, but it was still there as a reminder of the gap between us.

“After just a few minutes of knowing you, I could tell you were a family-oriented person,” he explained, still whispering. “You’d never give me the time of day if I didn’t get along with your brother.”

He pressed a little closer, so he was practically caging me against the wall. I placed a hand on his chest, and he fell still, waiting to see what I would do.

If I pushed him away, I felt certain that he would leave.

That knowledge gave me the confidence to pop open one of the buttons on his shirt, exposing more of his chest.

His blue eyes seemed to spark in the dark.

“You know, it’s a very fine line.” He leaned in until our foreheads touched. “I want to show interest in the things that matter to you, but a man of my age showing too much interest in a fifteen-year-old boy is potentially problematic in a lot of ways. Sometimes, I feel like there’s no winning. You really have set up a challenge for me.”

Keeping one hand on his chest, I let my other one run though his hair. “And what age is that? Now that we’re this close, I’ve noticed you’ve got some gray here. My friend was right, you are older than you look.”

I gasped in surprise when he grabbed my wrist and pinned it against the wall near my head. The hand I still had on his chest stiffened, instinctively ready to push him away.

He fell still again, waiting for my reaction.

It wasn’t the first time someone had grabbed me, but it was the first time I felt safe while also trapped. Maybe it was the fact that I still knew I could leave whenever I wanted that made staying so exciting.

Just to make things clear, I fisted my hand in his shirt and pulled him a little closer.

His grin was so sinful he could have rivaled the devil.

“Teasing a man about his age,” he said as he wrapped his fingers around my other wrist. “That could get you into a lot of trouble. I’m only thirty-eight. Hardly what I’d call old.”

With slow, deliberate movements, he brought my other wrist up to the wall as well so both of my arms were pinned by my head.

I shivered even though I wasn’t cold. Something hot twisted deep in my stomach and for a moment, I lost all feeling in my legs.

“Twenty-two,” I supplied my own age. “That’s not a problem, is it?”

“Only if it’s a problem for you.”

I quickly shook my head, feeling the metal wall scrape against the back of my scalp.

“Good…” He was so close now I could feel his breath on my lips. “Because I really don’t want to stop.”

I waited with bated breath for him to kiss me, but it never came. We were so close we were practically breathing the same air, yet he refused to close the remaining distance between us.

Desperation sat like a pit in my stomach. I licked my lips and tried not to squirm.

“Well? If you don’t want to stop, then why aren’t you doing anything?”

His laughter was little more than a single puff of air. “I could ask you the same thing.”

Finally realizing what he was waiting for, I surged forward as far as my trapped wrists would allow and claimed a desperate, hungry kiss.

The moment our lips touched, fire seemed to burn through my veins, but for the first time, I didn’t mind the heat.

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