Page 162 of Positively Pricked
I had to laugh. "You? Behave yourself? Oh, please."
His eyebrows lifted. "Meaning?"
I gave him a playful poke to the chest. "You're a monster."
As I pulled back my hand, he reached out and captured my wrist. Slowly, he turned my hand so my palm was facing upward. And then, he lowered his head and grazed his lips across the tender skin between my wrist and palm.
It didn't feel like a kiss. It felt like a promise. My heart fluttered, and my mouth went suddenly dry. I heard myself say, "Was that a serious answer?"
Against my wrist, he said, "Which one?"
"That you wanted to leave the hotel so we'd behave?"
"Notus,"he said, with another teasing kiss, this one to my wrist."Me."
"Seriously?"
With his lips still on my skin, he looked up and hit me with those amazing eyes of his. The way it looked, he was dead serious.
Again, I felt myself swallow.
I half-expected him to pull me close and kiss me on the lips, just like he had in his hotel room doorway. But he didn't. Instead, he got to his feet and tugged me up along with him.
He wrapped me in his arms, and brushed his lips against my forehead. We stood there like that one heavenly moment before he pulled back to say, "Monster, huh?"
I laughed. "Definitely."
He shrugged. "Eh, I've been called worse."
Now, this, I knew was true.
The next hours flew as we toured the Statue of Liberty, walked along Broadway, and rode to the top of the Empire State Building. Throughout all of this, he was a perfect gentleman.
I didn't know whether to be relieved or frustrated. Probably, I was a little bit of both, because I knew that whatever he asked me in private, I'd never be able to say no.
And yet, when we returned to the hotel, Iwassaying no. But it wasn't to sex. It was to something else.
