Page 67 of Cinder
He stops walking. “I’m going to do what I’ve been thinking about doing since I left for Florida.”
He cups my face, and I lick my lips nervously.
I’ve kissed him before.
Several times. But this time it feels different.
More intimate.
Real.
“Which is?” I ask breathlessly.
My heart beats wildly.
I look up at him.
And then his lips are on mine and we’re kissing each other like we’re absolutely starving.
I melt into him. Clutch his shirt. Breathe him in. The warmth, the need, the faint taste of something dangerous and addictive.
And God, I want this.
I want this so bad it aches in my chest.
I’m gone, completely lost in him, when the sharp buzz of my phone cuts through the haze.
Which can only mean one thing.
Luca is ringing me.
I break off the kiss and step back from Lars, plummeting back to reality.
I pull my phone from my pocket, a cold trickle of fear replacing the heat of Lars’s kiss when I see a familiar number on the screen.
It’s Lucretia’s number.
A zip of panic races through me.
Because she doesn’t know this number.
With a shaky hand, I raise the phone to my ear. “Lucretia?”
But it’s not Lucretia.
It’s Luca.
He’s found her secret phone.
Alarm crawls along my skin when I hear his voice.
“This was your one and only pass,” he says.
Fighting to keep calm, I move away from Lars and turn my back so he can’t hear the fear in my voice. “I understand.”
“Any more fuckups and Lucretia will have you to thank for what comes next.”
While I listen to Luca, Rogue walks by and starts to talk to Lars about something. Which is good because I don’t want Lars to hear what I say next.
