I could have melted into a puddle on the floor. “I know the feeling,” I admitted.
His gaze lowered to my mouth, lingered for a moment before snapping back up. But that didn’t stop him from bending down, putting his lips to my ear and saying, “So you’ve imagined kissing me, huh.” A husky note had entered his voice. Something intimate, just for me, and a blush heated my cheeks.
That was part of what I’d wanted to talk about tonight, yet he’d been the one to bring it up. Score one for Ali. I pointed out, “The same as you’ve imagined kissing me.”
“I know. So how are you making me do that?”
“Me? You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Yes, you. I never kid.” He tightened his grip on me, as if he assumed I’d bolt. “It has to be you. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before.”
“Well, nothing like that has ever happened to me before, either, so I’m blaming you!”
He lifted his head, studied me, and I wasn’t sure whether to love or hate the reason behind all that intensity. “Let’s tackle this from a less volatile angle. Have you wondered what it will be like for real?”
I…had no idea how to answer that. We continued to move together, rocking, swaying. His fingers flexed on me, lowered, and stopped at the curve of my butt, yet slapping his hands away was the last thing I wanted to do.
“Well?” he insisted.
Only the truth would do, I decided. “Yes, I have.”
“Me, too,” he rasped.
My knees almost buckled. “Are you saying…”
“That I want to discover if reality compares with imagination? Yes.”
Here? Now? My first reaction was panic. My second was more panic.
“Or not,” he added drily. I could feel his arms loosening on me. “I’m used to terrifying people, but not about something like this.”
I tightened my grip on him, forcing him to stay with me. “It’s just that…well, I’ve never…” Be quiet! He blinked down at me with a little confusion and a whole lot of incredulity.
“Are you trying to tell me that you’ve never been kissed?”
I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth. He looked so dubious, and his tone had bordered on insulting. “Yeah. So?”
“So, I’m shocked, that’s all. You’re…you.”
In-sul-ting. “Me?” I asked stiffly.
“Yeah. Hot,” he said.
Wait. Me? Hot?
He laughed down at me. “No one’s told you that, either, have they?”
I could only shake my head.
“You’ve clearly been hanging around idiots.” His gaze lowered—and stayed—on my lips, and he lost his gleam of amusement. “I’m going to kiss you, Ali.”
Here? Now? I thought again, my panic returning and my brain short-circuiting. “But I might be bad at it, and we don’t know each other very well, and you don’t— And I don’t— And we can’t—” The words rushed from me, but nothing came out fully formed.
“Apparently I do. And you will. And we can.” With that, he lowered his head, meshed his lips against mine and stole my breath.
In a snap, there was only Cole, this moment, his mouth…his taste. Mint and cherries. His heat, enveloping me. His strength, surrounding me. Caging me as if we were back in that grocery store parking lot, the Jeep behind me. I gave myself up to the sensations, lost track of everything but Cole.
He must have lost track of everything but me, too, because the tone of the kiss changed from eager and curious to flat-out ravenous. He devoured me, and I did the same to him. My hands roamed over his back, my nails scraping at him. I was inexperienced, yes, but just like in the visions he knew exactly what he was doing.
This was consuming…drugging. He made me feel, without any kind of filter. For so long I’d wanted my life to be nothing more than a dream. Now, with emotions and sensations flooding me, I wanted this reality. And I wanted to stay in the safety and intensity of his arms. I wanted to give him everything. Here, now. Want, want, want. Want to touch him, more of him. Want his shirt off. I reached for the hem.
He reached for the hem of my shirt.
Then, suddenly, Cole was gone.
Wait. “Come back,” I demanded, a strange fog filling my head.
Voices, at a distance. Couldn’t decipher them.
My ears were ringing, I realized. Trembling, panting, I tried to focus on what was happening around me. First person I noticed as Frosty. He must have jerked Cole away from me, because he now stood between us, holding out his arms to widen the distance. His mouth was moving. He was speaking, but I couldn’t understand him.