Page 55 of Monster Among the Roses (Fairy Tale Quartet 1)

Finally, she looked up, lifting her face to show me the fear and uncertainty in her blue eyes. “You stopped kissing me,” she said in a low voice that shook with nerves. “You stopped and pulled away and then apologized like…like you regretted it.”

My lips parted as shock punched all the air from my lungs. “No,” I gasped. “Oh, God, no. Isobel…Jesus, no, that’s not why I apologized. I didn’t regret kissing you. I don’t regret it even now.”

Her eyes looked so blue, and large, and confused. “Then why did you say sorry?”

“Be-because I was worried I had offended you.”

She shook her head, frowning. “Huh?”

I laughed. But when her brow puckered as if she thought I was laughing at her, I sobered. Tenderness and even relief filled me.

“Oh, you crazy girl,” I murmured, cupping her face in my hands, one palm settling against smooth warm skin, the other cradling ragged, torn scar tissue. “If only you could look into my head right now and see how much I think about you, see what I think about you, you would never doubt my willingness to kiss you ever again. You absolutely own everything

about me. I would not regret kissing you at any time, anywhere, in any sense. I would kiss you in the morning or at night, or in the dark or full daylight.”

With a laugh, she buried her face in the front of my shirt. “You’re starting to sound like Dr. Seuss.”

Since it’d made her smile, I ran with it, murmuring in her ear. “I would kiss you in a box with a fox or on a house with a mouse. I would kiss you in a—”

She cut me off by lifting her face and smashing her mouth to mine. Then she grabbed two fistfuls of my hair, anchoring me to her. My surprised grunt was muffled against her lips, vibrating between us. Then her tongue touched mine, and I was gone. Done. Lost in passion.

She smelled so good, felt so soft, tasted like fruit—something citrusy—and made the most fetching whimper to ever touch my ears. I swear it reached right down into my pants and bitch slapped my dick awake. I was suddenly hard and throbbing, focused on nothing but her. She gasped my name and this primal urge to feast on her filled my senses.

I broke my mouth from hers, working my way down her neck. I couldn’t even tell you if I was on the scarred side of her throat or not, I just knew she felt amazing against me, still clutching my hair and tipping her head back to allow me better access. I wanted all of her right then. My attention went lower, and she made a hiccupping sound of surprise when my lips touched the swell of her breasts through her shirt.

Blinking myself somewhat back to reality, I looked up into her face. “This okay?” I asked.

She nodded, breathing heavily. “Yes. Of course, I just…we’re so out in the open. I feel exposed.”

I looked around, realizing where we were. Immediately, I whipped my hands off her. “Oh, shit. We’re in the…I’m at work. I’m making out with someone on the job.” Not just someone, my boss’s daughter.

Henry was going to kill me and then fire me for this if he ever found out about it. Probably in that order.

Isobel merely grinned. God, why did she have to look so beautiful when she smiled like that?

“You don’t technically start work until eight, and it’s barely seven thirty now.”

I stared at her, listening to her words, but for some reason, they didn’t make me feel better.

“I need to tell you something,” I blurted, not even planning to say that, but my mouth…the stupid fucking thing had a mind of its own. “And I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

God…damn. Why couldn’t I just keep my trap shut?

Isobel sank away from me, her eyes going wary and untrusting. I reached for her without thinking but she evaded my touch.

It gutted me. I hadn’t even confessed yet, and she was already withdrawing.

Pretty sure I was about to fuck myself over majorly, but unable to lie to her in any way, not even a lie of omission, because my guilt would drive me insane, I pulled my knees up toward my chest and wrapped my arms around them. I probably looked like a lost little child about to confess my deepest fear, but I sort of felt like one too.

“What?” she demanded. “Just say it.”

Closing my eyes, I admitted, “I was brought here because of you.”

chapter

EIGHTEEN

The silence that followed my confession was resounding. It echoed around in my head until sweat misted on my brow.

---