Page 21 of Personal Disaster

I nod, then I kiss her. Need roars to life inside me in a way I’ve never experienced before. Sure, I want her. I’ve wanted her since the first swish of her ponytail yesterday in this very spot. But now I feel something else—a possessive urge to claim her asmine.

It’s ridiculous. I’m a lone wolf, always have been. But always will be no longer sounds like the right thing to tag on there at theend.

I like this feeling. I like the way she pushes back against my kiss, demanding more. I like the taste of her, the soft sweetness she gives me when I earnit.

“Today was a good day, then?” I run my nose along her cheek as I breathe in the scent of herskin.

“I’ve salvaged the trip. Professionally, Imean.”

“And personally?”

She twists her head and captures my mouth with hers. I get it. I don’t want to answer that question, either. Twenty-four hours is hardly enough time to fall in love—especially when a good number of those hours are spent yelling at each other.

“It was more than I could have hoped,” she whispers.

That’s a damn good answer. I tighten my arms around her and lift. She shrieks and clutches her cookies tight, and I do my damnedest not to notice how her bare legs wrap around my waist.

I carry her inside and set her on my desk, next to my lunchbag.

She crosses her legs and opens the bag of cookies. Her eyes sparkle as she looks up at me. “Hungry?”

“First we eat real food. Then dessert.”

She nods solemnly. “Right. Save the sweetness for later.”

My cock wants the sweetness right now, and he did not miss the double entendre.

“Soon,” I say with a growl, and she grabs the front of my khaki uniform, fisting the fabric as she tugs mein.

“Promise?”

I brace my hands on either side of her. “I want to do a lot of things to you on thisdesk.”

“Any of them inappropriate?”

“All ofthem.”

“I like the sound of that,” she whispers, tugging me the last inch so our foreheads bump together. She smiles, her eyes soft. Her breath is warm and sweet against my mouth. “Want to know my secret confession from yesterday?”

“Definitely.”

“I was hoping you were a pervert of the highest order.”

“You’re in luck.” I nip at her lower lip, dragging my teeth over her delicate flesh. “Want to know my confession?”

“Yes, please.”

Oh, the way she says please. It does wrong, wrong, dirty things to my insides. “I wanted to chase you down. Catch you by the waist and tumble through the grass, until you were straddling me. I wanted you to peel your skirt up and show me what you were wearing underneath.”

“That’s terrible,” she breathes, her eyes big and bright. “I loveit.”

“We can do that just as soon as we eat. You’ve had a long morning.”

“Okay.” She pushes herself off the desk and into myarms.

Goodness like this is what makes people think that things happen for a reason. They don’t. That’s a lie. Things just happen, randomly and chaotically.

Poppy might think she came here because she had a crush, but that wasn’t me. She didn’t know me yet. She doesn’t know menow.

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