Page 65 of Incipient

“Yeah, I forgive you,” he said, closing the gap between us. “But I do have one more favor to ask you.”

My knees naturally parted to welcome him into my space.

“I have to warn you, though. This is very serious.”

“Okay,” I said slowly, my heart picking up its pace. “Let’s hear it.”

Flattening his palms against the desk on either side of me, he lowered his head, his jaw brushing against my cheek in the most delicious of ways. “Don’t ask Caleb to the dance.”

Grinning, I bit down on my lip as my body hummed from his proximity. “And why is that?” I asked, though I had no intention of doing any such thing.

He turned his head slightly, his breath warming the space around my ear as he breathed in the scent of my hair. “Because I think I might die of a jealousy.”

Inwardly swooning, I turned to look at him, accidently bringing out lips within a feather’s touch of each other. “Well, I definitely wouldn’t want that.”

“Nor would I.”

“I don’t suppose you have someone better in mind?”

“Actually, I do.” His gaze dropped to my mouth and my heart ping-ponged in my chest.

“Do you think he’s available this close to the dance? I mean, it’s kind of last minute.”

His gaze returned to mine as he flashed a perfect, dimpled grin. “I’m sure he could make himself available for you.”

“Trace?” Aching to feel the warmth of his skin against my own, I reached up and touched my hand to his cheek, tracing his dimple with my finger as a gentle charge hummed between us.

He responded with a deep rumble at the back of his throat as his eyes slipped shut.

“Would you like to be my date to the dance?”

A playful smile curled his lips as he said, “I’m actually busy that night, but thanks for asking.”

“Very funny.” I swatted him against the chest, and he quickly caught my hand and held it there.

“I’d be your date for the end of the world, Jemma,” he said as he cupped the back of my neck and pulled my mouth to his. A delicious growl sounded in his chest as I parted my lips and tasted his tongue.

Wrapping my arms around his neck, I drew him closer to me, circling my legs around the back of his as I mashed his body to mine.

My skin sizzled with electricity as he slid his hand under the hem of my skirt, stroking my leg and then gripping my hip with his fingers. It was all I could do not to moan into his mouth.

Heat and need pooled low in my belly and I clutched onto him harder, wishing the classroom and the school and the entire world would just disappear around us.

“Just say the word,” he murmured, speaking against my lips as my body reached a fever pitch.

My mind was racing, my body starving for more—for more of him, for more of this, and for more of us. I couldn’t think straight anymore. Not when he was kissing me the way he was or touching me like I was the last living thing on earth. The only thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t want this to stop…

“Word,” I whispered, my body humming with so much energy, I thought I might burst at the seams.

He fisted his hand into my hair and tipped my head back, deepening the kiss as a cold breeze swept around us. Within seconds, the classroom melted away as the artic chill intensified, and then we were gone, whisked away through time and space before materializing back in his bedroom, my back pressed firmly against his mattress and his body covering mine like my favorite blanket.

Somewhere in the deepest trenches of my mind, a little voice was calling for me to heed the road ahead of me, to take caution against the fallout that would inevitably come. But I was sick and tired of listening to that voice, and so I pushed the whiney bitch so far into my subconscious that she’d need a rescue team just to find her way out again.

And then I let myself go.

27. THE HEART WANTS WHAT IT WANTS

A gentle rain rapped against the windows as I reached up and wrapped my arms around Trace’s neck. He was nestled between my legs, his chest perched against my own, his lips on mine with my legs still tangled around the back of his, and yet we were still so far from where I wanted to be.

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