Page 23 of Taking Jenny
She opened the door and her eyes flicked over my bare torso and lingered. She swallowed. I did too.
“I wanted to…check on you,” she said, almost breathless.
“I’m fine,” I lied.
She met my gaze, studying me for a long moment. “I want to know why you left me in the hall with Mal.”
I forced a casual shrug. “You seemed to have a connection. I didn’t want to be in the way.”
Jenny’s expression shifted, a hint of a mischievous smile on her lips. “You think I like him?”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You seemed to.”
She moved closer, and when she reached me she pressed her palms against my bare chest. Her hands were small and warm against my skin, and my cock stirred in my pants. With the almost two feet of height difference between us, she had to tip her head back to look into my eyes.
“I do have a connection with Mal,” she admitted. “But more importantly, if flirting with him keeps us alive, I’ll flirt.”
I narrowed my gaze down at her. “So, you were pretending?”
“No…not exactly.” She licked her bottom lip and my gaze tracked the movement, my shaft thickening even more. “I’m leveraging the attraction. That’s all. For both of us.” Her hands skimmed lower, fingers tracing my ribs. “But I’d like to think we have a connection too.”
Her honesty cut through me, and some of the tension in my body eased. “I would like to believe we do, as well.”
She smiled, and it was devastating. “You seem like someone who doesn’t connect easily.”
“I never have,” I admitted huskily. “Not like this.”
“You’re shy with me,” she said, her voice soft as her fingertips drifted toward my belt. “More than most men ever are.”
I couldn’t look away, and unable to keep my hands to myself any longer, I lifted one and brushed blue streaks of hair away from her pretty face. “You’re not like anyone I’ve ever met.”
My heart thundered as she pulled the belt from my trousers. “Did you know people in life-threatening situations tend to make…impulsive choices?”
I nodded. “I’ve seen it firsthand.”
“Well,” she murmured, eyes heavy-lidded, “I want to make agoodchoice tonight. Do you?”
“I was going to turn in early—”
Jenny giggled. “Not the kind of good choice I had in mind. At least, not alone.” She rose on her toes, barely able to wrap her arms around my neck. “Can I kiss you, Tiger?”
“Yes,” I breathed, settling my hands on her waist. Ladrians did not indulge in that human custom called kissing, but I’d seen Deacon and Jac kiss Sarah, and I was curious to know what it would feel like with Jenny.
Her mouth touched mine, and my thoughts vanished. She tasted like heat and hope and something about the sensation reset my brain. Her tongue slipped past my lips to tease mine, slow and sinful, until I matched her pace, dizzy with the lust coursing through my veins.
When she abruptly jerked back, my chest seized. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No…” she said slowly, eyeing me. “Is there something on your tongue?”
Oh.I recalled one of the details of my human anatomy class, and the stark difference between a human’s tongue, and a Ladrian’s. “Ladrian tongues are longer than humans’,” I told her. “And our taste buds are more pronounced.”
Her eyes lit with mischief and she looked like she wanted to play. “How much longer?”
I wanted to play, too. “I could show you. Or you could find out for yourself. Aren’t you the one who is always up for an adventure?”
Her smile turned wicked. “Guess I’ll have to find out for myself.”
She kissed me again, deeper this time. Hungrier. Her body molded to mine, and I felt myself harden against her. I shifted, embarrassed—but she followed, pressing closer.
