Oblivion

“You’re not nice.” She tried pulling away, but she wasn’t going anywhere. “Let me go.”

“I’m not sure I can do that. I must protect myself.” I dropped her hand.

“Oh, really, that’s your reason for—for manhandling me?”

“Manhandling?” I moved forward until she was pressed against the cubicle desk. “This isn’t manhandling or whatever the hell that is.”

She didn’t say anything at first, but I knew where her brain had gone, which was right where my brain operated pretty much every time I was with her. Her eyes dilated. Her pulse picked up. Even her lips had parted.

“Daemon, someone is going to see us.”

“So?” I carefully picked up her hand. “Not like anyone is going to say a thing to me.”

She dragged in a deep breath. “So my trace has faded, but this stupid co

I’d been hoping that the weird co

“What does that mean, then?”

“I don’t know.” I didn’t really care at this moment. I slipped my fingers under her sleeve, smoothing the tips over her soft skin. I liked the jolt of electricity. Added bonus of touching her.

“Why do you keep touching me?”

“I like to.”

?“Daemon…”?She placed her hand against my chest, and satisfaction swelled inside me.

“But back to the trace. You know what that means.”?

“That I don’t have to see your face outside of school?” she said.

Such a mouth. I laughed, and her eyes flared wide. “You’re no longer at risk.”

“I think the not-seeing-your-face part outweighs the safe part.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” I brushed my chin along her hair, savoring the feeling as I moved on to her cheek. I could feel her heartbeat revving, crashing in her chest. God, I wanted her. Some would say it was wrong, but I wanted her. “If that makes you feel better, but we both know it’s a lie.”

She tipped her head back, her eyes flashing up at me. “It’s not a lie.”

“We’re still going to be seeing each other,” I murmured. “And don’t lie. I know that makes you happy. You told me you wanted me.”

She blinked. “When?”

“At the lake.” I tilted my head. Our mouths were so close. It would take nothing for me to kiss her, but it would be worth everything. “You said you wanted me.”

Her other hand landed on my chest. “I had a fever. Lost my mind.”

“Whatever, Kitten.” I dropped my hands to her soft hips and lifted her back up on the edge of the desk. “I know better.

“You don’t know anything,” she breathed.

“Uh-huh. You know, I was worried about you.” I eased in between her legs. “You kept calling out my name, and I kept answering, but it was like you couldn’t hear me.”

She blinked as she lowered her hands down my stomach. I wondered if she even knew she was feeling me up. Or when her hands reached my sides that she tugged me closer, against her. “Wow, I must’ve been really out of it.”

My eyes met hers, and in spite of the heat building at the base of my spine, when I looked down at her, I saw her lifeless and limp in my arms. I tasted that fear again, and I spoke the words I couldn’t admit to Adam. “It…scared me.”

Surprise flickered across her face, but I didn’t give her time to really think about that. I lowered my mouth to hers, and the moment we touched, her fingers dug into my sweater. She could tell me all she wanted that she didn’t desire this, but she wanted it as badly as I did, if not more.

I focused on the seam of her lips with my tongue, teasing her, working her, slowly coaxing her open. And when she did, I wanted to shout, but that would require me lifting my mouth from hers. Her arms looped around my neck and then she was kissing me back just as urgently, just as feverishly.

And I wanted more.

My hands slipped under her shirt, spreading along the bare skin of her sides. I hadn’t forgotten what her flesh felt like. I couldn’t get the damn memory of it out of my head. I knew she couldn’t either. This was meant to happen, and I wasn’t surprised when her lower body tipped against mine and she moaned against my mouth, and her response had me wanting to find a much bigger area than this cubicle and more—

Something snapped around us, popped, and then cracked. The smell of burned ozone immediately filled the cubicle.

I pulled away, and breathing heavily, I looked over my shoulder. An old-ass computer was smoking. Heh. Electronics did not fare well around us. I turned back to her, ready to pick up where we’d stopped, but the moment my gaze centered on her, I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Her walls were up. She was pissed, looking like a cat that was about to get dumped in bathwater. She pushed—she pushed hard—and surprised, I let go, moving back a step. Something weird unfurled in my chest. A deep twinge of…of hurt. Well, now that I knew how that felt, it sucked. Sucked ass.

“God, I don’t even like this—kissing you,” she said.

Oh, wait the hell up. Not true. I straightened to my full height. “I beg to differ. And I think this computer tells a different story, too.”

A nasty little look pinched her features, and for some messed-up reason, it made her cuter. “That—that will never happen again.”

I arched a brow as I stared at her. Yeah, it would most definitely happen again. Challenge thrown down. Challenge accepted. “And I think you’ve said that before.” When her face looked like she swallowed something sour, I sighed. “Kat, you enjoyed that—just as much as I did. Why lie?”

A moment passed, and then she shook her head. “Because it’s not real. You didn’t want me before.”

“I did—”

“Don’t you dare say you wanted me, because you treated me like I was the Antichrist! You can’t just undo that because there’s a stupid co

Looking away, I dragged my hand through my hair. She was right. I had hurt her. I had embarrassed her. I couldn’t go back and change that, even though I wished I could. “I know. I’m…I’m sorry for how I treated you, Kat.”

She stared at me for a few seconds and then bit down on her lip. “Even now, we’re all the way hidden in the library, as if you don’t want people to know you made a mistake that day and acted like a dick. And I’m supposed to be okay with that now?”

What the hell? My eyes widened. Did she think I was hiding her? “Kat—”

“I’m not saying we can’t be friends, because I want to. I do like you a lo—” She cut herself off. “Look, this didn’t happen. I’m going to blame aftereffects of the flu or say that a zombie ate my brain.”

My brows furrowed. “What?”

“I don’t want this with you.” She started to turn, but I caught her arm. Her eyes narrowed on me. “Daemon…”

I looked her dead on. “You’re a terrible liar. You do want this. Just as badly as I do. You want this as badly as you want to go to ALA this winter.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You don’t even know what ALA is!”

“The American Library Association midwinter event.” I was quite proud of this. “Saw you obsessing over it on your blog before you got sick. I’m pretty sure you said you’d give up your firstborn child to go. Anyway, back to the whole you-wanting-me part. You do want me.”

Kat drew in a deep breath as a weird mix of amusement and irritation flashed across her face. “You are way too confident.”

“I’m confident enough to wager a bet.”

Her eyes rolled. “You can’t be serious.”

I gri

“Wow. Want to throw another adverb out there?” Her cheeks were bright red.

Winking at her, I came up with another one. “How about irresistibly?”

“I’m surprised you know what an adverb is,” she muttered.