As soon as the up-tempo tune ended, a Jason Mraz ballad sounded through the speakers and covered the patio. Some left the floor. Seth merely pulled her closer and pressed himself against her.
“Have you been thinking about our conversation the other day?”
“Almost nonstop,” she admitted.
“I’ve been waiting for you to call.”
And she’d thought every day about picking up the phone. “I waitressed and studied most of the weekend with an…outing on Sunday.”
His clenched jaw said he guessed she’d been with Beck and he wasn’t pleased. “Glad you got a day off.”
Even when she’d unwittingly upset him, he was kind. “This week, the hospital has been busy and school has been tough. Now…we’re here.”
“And now, you’re mine.”
They moved together to the music. The burn of his fingers seared her everywhere his hands touched, yet she felt ethereal as he led her across the dance floor so effortlessly she would have sworn she floated. Everyone else faded into the background until she saw only Seth, until she got lost in his eyes. Just him and this moment that belonged to only them existed.
She wasn’t even aware when they left the dance floor. One moment they were swaying together under the lights. The next he backed her against the wall and closed in, pressing palms flat on either side of her, his mouth mere inches away.
“Christ, I can’t stand it anymore. I have to kiss you, angel. You going to let me?”
She didn’t have to think. Couldn’t, really, except about how badly she wanted him to and had since he’d appeared in Raine’s living room last week. “Yes.”
Heavenly barely had time to worry that she didn’t know the first thing about kissing before he cupped her nape, cradled her jaw in his wide hands, and swooped down to capture her mouth.
Somehow, the kiss was soft—his lips, his touch—but his invasion was breath-stealingly direct. He didn’t bother flirting or teasing. He took. He conquered, doing it so gently and skillfully she surrendered without a second thought and opened willingly when he nudged her lips apart.
He pressed in, sinking deep. His demand filled her head. If he hadn’t pinned her to the wall with his sinewy body, she would have crumpled to her knees before him. Oh, my goodness…
Because she couldn’t stand not to, Heavenly clutched his shoulders and gasped. He swallowed the sound and moaned in turn. His fingers tightened, burning her through the thin fabric of her dress. He shuddered. The intimacy of his lips sliding against hers, of their audible breaths melding, made her head go hazy with pleasure. Hot need rolled like a thick drug through every artery and vein.
Then Heavenly felt the urgent press of his tongue as it stroked, hot and thick, into her mouth. It felt like he was stealing into her soul, too. And still she couldn’t stop him. She didn’t want to. Each new sweep of his lips promised her the kind of ecstasy she’d only imagined—until now. She just wanted to stay suspended in this moment forever, where her troubles melted away, where she felt beautiful, where he shook her very existence.
Between one kiss and the next, she inhaled him and pressed against his body restlessly, needing more. She wrapped her leg around one of his thighs until no space remained between them and whimpered.
“Oh, angel…” He ground himself against her.
His name rose on her lips, but Heavenly swallowed it when his kiss had her drowning in sensation once more.
Seth’s touch skated down her body, then finally trailed down the small of her back. As he caressed his way even farther south, he enveloped nearly all of her derrière in one big hand. That shock was still rolling though her system when he growled, dragged her closer, and fit his edges against her curves. She felt overwhelmed, overpowered, overjoyed as he devoured her mouth with an urgency that was like catching fire. Something equally explosive rose within her.
A split second later, he cupped her ass with both hands and tore his lips from hers to nuzzle her neck. The heady, dizzying, wild sensation was undoing her… Then he hoisted her against his body, notching his erection—definitely not an involuntary male response—onto her weeping sex, where she ached most.
Heavenly curled her arms and legs around him, pressing closer as she labored for breath. “Seth… Please.”
Suddenly, he groaned, then ripped himself away and set her on her feet, gripping the wall with taut fingers and breathing hard. His face was twisted with agony and self-restraint. “If I don’t let you go now, I will stop caring about anything except getting inside you.”
His words detonated a bomb of need between her legs. “Oh.”
Then he fisted her hair, his stare penetrating. “I want that. I want you. So bad you have no idea, but not against a goddamn wall with everyone around.”