Page 45 of Taking Jenny
I looked up sharply to find Mal’s eyes flashing at me. “Can I help you?”
“Youkickedme,” he said indignantly.
“I did not,” I shot back, aggravated. “Youkickedme.”
“If I ever kick you, Tiger, you’ll know it.”
“Is that a fact?” I grated between my clenched teeth.
“No. It’s a warning.”
The fire that flared in my chest had nothing to do with anger and everything to do with the low, charged hum suddenly threading the air between us. I slammed the book shut, grabbed it, and stood.
“I’m going overthere,” I said, pointing to a table across the way. “If you stay here, maybe I won’t kick you again.”
Mal’s dark eyes glinted with amusement. “So, you admit you kicked me.”
Thoroughly exasperated, I growled deep in my throat and stomped away without another word. I sat on the bench, openedthe book, and tried to focus again. I didn’t even get through the first paragraph before he was standing beside me.
I looked up, scowling. “What?”
He shrugged in that irritating way of his. “Thought I’d join you.”
“Why?” I snapped.
“So you can kick me again.”
My eyes narrowed on him. “You are so…confusing. What is your problem, Mal? Why are you like this? Why do you keep challenging me, being petty, getting under my skin and—”
He leaned in a little closer. Not much. Just enough that I could feel the heat rolling off his body, smell the trace of something warm and clean on his skin.
His voice was low when he spoke. “Because it works.”
My pulse spiked. Becausehe wasn’t wrong.
We stared at each other, the charged silence thick enough to burn through the damn room. I hated that he was always so composed. That he always had a perfect, infuriating answer. That he was close enough to kiss. Too close. And not moving away.
Eyes dark, he suddenly gripped the hair at the back of my skull in his fist, jerking my head back right before his lips crashed onto mine.
There was no hesitation. Just heat, fury, and a reckless hunger that knocked the air from my lungs. Mal’s tongue parted my lips, sliding into me, boldly taking my mouth, stealing my breath. It wasn’t tender. It was consuming. A kiss made of every argument, every glare, every snarled insult between us.
He pulled back, eyes locked on mine, searching for something. I didn’t know what to say. Couldn’t find a single world. We just panted at each other in the flickering dimness of the library, neither of us moving. The silence between us pulsed, electric and taut.
Then my hand moved without conscious thought. I grabbed the front of his shirt, twisted the fabric in my fist, and yanked him back down to me.
The second kiss was worse. Or maybe better. Sloppier. Needier. A mess of teeth and heat and tension, all unraveling at once. It wasnothinglike kissing Jenny. With her, I felt grounded, worshipful. With Mal, it was a power struggle. A burning question without an answer.
And gods help me, I wanted more. I wantedhim.
All the rage I’d harbored toward him, the hatred for the role he played in the system I loathed—it all combusted into something hotter, darker. Lust tangled with hostility, and it was all-consuming.
I’d spent years resenting everything he stood for, this wicked, forbidden, beautifully lethal man,the royal executioner, who now straddled my lap like he belonged there. One leg on either side of me. His mouth fierce on mine. His hands in my hair.
He was heavier than Jenny. Broader. The feel of his body was entirely different…less yielding and carved from something primal and unmalleable. My hands slid down his back of their own accord, cupping his ass. Strong. Tight. Muscled.
He groaned into my mouth when I gripped him there. His body pressed harder against mine, every inch of him brimming with restrained violence and heat. There was no tail curling behind him. Still such a strange absence, but I barely had the thought before he rocked his hips into mine, causing our stiff cocks to press and rub against each other beneath the fabric of our pants.
I shuddered. I had no idea what to do with a man in my lap. I’d read everything there was about pleasing women, or people with similar anatomy, but skipped right over anything involving a man. Every inch of Mal was solid in contrast to Jenny’ssoftness. I had the same male parts, sure, but that didn’t mean I knew whatheliked.
