Instead, I locked us inside the garage and looked at my watch. We had less than an hour before my mom was due back home. He could say his peace and split. “Are you insane, coming here?” I demanded.
I tried to unlace our fingers, but he was having none of it. His grip held our hands fused together. He tugged on our arms, bringing me closer to him. The heat from our drenched bodies fizzed. A darkened amber popped into his eyes, and I knew that would lead down a path I didn’t want to explore, even though my body was all on board. I opened my mouth to protest, but found myself silenced by his sensual lips.
He took me by surprise.
At first I didn’t know what to do. It was like I’d never done this before. His lips grinded on mine, turning my mind to mush. Our dripping wet clothes were smashed between us, but I couldn’t have cared less.
Then I was kissing him back, but it was different now. He changed angles, gathering me close, my hands fisted in his sopping hair. A bolt of pleasure shot through me, making me dizzy from all the sensations swarming in my system. My heart was beating in my head, echoing in my ears like a train picking up speed in a tunnel.
Holy mighty hotness.
His lips were soft and seeking, but unyielding. I was powerless to resist. The fight inside me had gone out, if just for this stolen moment in my garage, on a magical raining day. It almost felt normal. His kiss offered comfort I didn’t know I was searching for. Strong hands spanned the small of my back, keeping me secure.
There was desperation to our kiss, stemming from every lost second torn from us, every fear, and all the space that had separated us. Feelings that had been stomped out of me came rushing back in tidal waves. My fingers curled into his shirt, and he lifted me off the ground, my legs wrapping around him. The kiss might have started out sweet, but it quickly deepened, taking it to an edge I wasn’t sure I was stable enough for.
Jesus, I could barely handle the emotions that were wildly churning inside me. I didn’t recognize the girl draped around Travis, her mouth merged with his.
My back hit the wall of the garage, and I let a breathy moan escape. Had that just come from me? I didn’t think I was the kind of girl who got swept off her feet by a kiss, but damn, it wasn’t just any kiss. Travis kisses altered my world.
That was a scary thought.
I reveled in the shudder that rolled through him as I ran my teeth along his lower lip. We came up for air, but his lips were always busy, leisurely paying attention to any part of me he could. My neck. My jaw. The sensitive spot on my ear.
“Hmm,” he murmured, and the sound vibrated against my lips as his mouth once again found mine. “You still taste like peaches.”
And he could still kiss the socks off me.
He made me lose my head, made me forget what I was…and that was the problem.
His head dipped to kiss me again, but this time I shoved at his chest with the first breath of clarity since we’d stepped into the garage. We couldn’t do this. I couldn’t let him get inside my head. I was tired of people poking around in there. For the first time since my release, I wanted to find myself. Who I was. What I wanted to be. I was sick of being caught up in everyone else’s battles.
Fuck the facility.
My life was a smorgasbord of messed up, and I was going to take the reins and steer my life in the direction I wanted to go.
Somehow.
I would deal with the “how” later. Right now I needed to deal with Travis and his super sexy lips.
“I didn’t bring you in here to make out,” I snapped, unable to not stare at his mouth.
He angled a brow and smirked, showing me his lady-killer dimples. “That…was long overdue.”
The boy was relentless; I’d give him that.
And I needed room to breathe without the scent of him clogging my brain. It was distracting and made me want things I couldn’t yet have. It was a travesty. I needed to fix me, before I could even think about Travis.
I just hope he got that.
“This…won’t work,” I insisted with more force, whatever it took to get it through his thick skull, even if I had to beat it into him.
He took a step toward me. “We can be together again. We can find a way.”
I held up my hands, warning him to not come any closer. There might have been a small dagger that I jerked out of my back pocket clutched in one of them. A girl can never be too prepared. “No. We. Can’t.” Here it goes—the heart-crushing speech. I took a deep breath. “There is no us.”
He flinched, but I barreled through, needing to get it all out there before I let him coax me back into his arms. “This was a huge mistake.” He shook his head, not really hearing me. “I’m a hunter. I kill your kind. Do you get that? A hunter for hire and I am charged with killing your cousin. That hasn’t changed.” Yet, I added silently to myself. Chase’s future was still uncertain. “Can you honestly say you’re on board with that? Me killing Chase?”
Silence.
I scoffed. “Yeah. I didn’t think so.”