Page 68 of The Wrong Heart

The whooshing sound from outside, almost like a runaway train, seems to die down, and I wonder if the threat has passed. I wonder if this will all be over soon, so I can get the hell out of here and never look back. The lights flicker for a brief moment, just enough for me to catch the glaze over her eyes and the pink stain in her cheeks.

And then it’s dark again. Our secrets are still safe.

The soft pads of her fingers graze the bristles along my chin, and she inhales slowly. “Tell me more.”

I try to swipe her arms away, but she actually fights back, maintaining her grip, cupping my face between her palms.

“Keep going, Parker.”

A growl escapes me, and I fist her hair again as a wave of anger surges through me. “Fucking intrusive,” I spit out, our foreheads knocking together when she arches into me.

Melody makes that sound again, a squeaky mewl, as I tighten my hold on her hair, and her sharp nails dig into my cheeks.

Andfuck, this is the damn wrong time to be getting turned on.

“Keep going,” she says raggedly, echoing my own words from that night in the rain. “Get mad. Let it out.”

Her body bows against me, our groins pressing together and a hiss expelling between gritted teeth. “You don’t want to know what I’m feeling right now.”

“Yes, I do,” she insists, her knees clamping around my hips. “You can talk to me. We’re just two people taking cover from the storm.”

“Is that what this is?”

“Yes.”

I tug on her hair, my opposite hand grazing down her spine and curling around her hip until I’m grinding my erection into the apex of her thighs, and she knowsexactlywhat I’m feeling. “Feels like something else to me,” I reply in a low voice.

Melody’s hands drop to my shoulders with a whimper, squeezing tight, her nails surely leaving little half-moons in my skin. She sucks in a sharp breath, her whole body tensing as her forehead falls against mine and rests there. She whispers my name as if she can’t seem to muster anything more. “Parker…”

Jesus, this is fucked.

I haven’t had sex inages. I haven’t even thought about it—not until her. Not until that night beneath the rainclouds when I watched her dance atop the hood of her car, weightless and free, her wet clothes stuck to ivory skin that I suddenly wanted to feel beneath my fingertips.

But that was just a fluke.

And this…

This is just the dark, playing tricks on me. Playing tricks on both of us.

I can hardly make out her outline through the black veil between us, but I can picture her flushed cheeks, wild hair, and wide green eyes, like two emerald arrows to my chest.

All I want to do is pull them out, but they’re embedded, lodged too deep, and it’ll only make it worse. I’ll bleed out.

Instead, I strengthen my hold on Melody’s hip as her nose grazes mine. Our breaths intermingle, and my head falls back against the wall, her breasts flush with my torso. I feel her inching in, getting closer, her lips almost touching mine.

It’s the dark.This isn’t real.

I’m choking on her scent, dizzy and light-headed.

Melody’s palms slide up to my neck, her thumbs dusting gently, and she breathes against my mouth, “You’re shaking again.”

Fuck.

It’s not the dark this time, and it’s not the storm—it’s allher. She’s twisting me up inside, smelling like lemons and grapefruit, feeling warm and supple in my hands, and making these little squeaky sounds that shoot straight to my groin. And I know I should pull away because her lips are far too fucking close to mine, but it feels like she’s breathing life into me, and I don’t know how to pull away from something like that.

Melody leans in, just a centimeter more, and our lips brush together. So soft, so light, hardly anything at all, but it feels electric.

Catastrophic.

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