Embarrassed by her public display—she might as well have carved out her dumb heart and slapped it on a platter—Lacey tosses her hair and turns on her heel. “I’m done. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
“Hell, I don’t fuckin’ think so.”
A hand wraps around her arm, Seth whirling her back toward him.
He stands in front of her, his face creased. “We’re talkin’ about it. Now. I ain’t wastin’ another damn second wonderin’.”
Tilting her face up, she forces herself to ask, forces hope back down to her toes. “Wondering what?”
“Wonderin’ why we ain’t doin’ us.” His gaze turns heavy-lidded. His voice a ragged husk. “Wonderin’ why I ain’t kissin’ you.”
Heat blooms across her cheeks. She props her hands on her hips. “Well?” A dare. A challenge. A damn plea.
Seth pulls her closer, his blue-eyed gaze tracking hers. Bracing a hand on the small of her back, he presses her into him, lowers his face to hers. “If I’m wrong, then stop me.” His hand captures a long strand of her hair, tucking it behind her ear. He leans down. Closer. “Last warning.”
She closes her eyes. Sparks spiral inside of her, and she is a hundred airborne embers drifting to Seth, to his lips, his kiss. “Seth, I—”
The next thing she knows, Seth’s kiss lands like a grenade as he hauls her against him. His hands cup her face, his hands in her hair. His lips are cool, sucking in her breath, her every protest, her next words.
Lacey whimpers like it’s an unlocking, something deep inside of her coming alive, melting at his touch.
She grips Seth’s tie and yanks him closer, not letting him loose. She parts her lips, inhaling his tongue, savoring his kiss. Wishing she could hook it to her veins. She’s never felt anything like it. That slow warming down below. A deep need to be sated, but knowing that under Seth’s touch, she never will be. She’ll want it more. Always. Again and again and again.
Knowing that this kiss will change everything.
And it doesn’t scare her. She wants it to be different. Wants to break all the rules. Wants him with such a fierce need it scares her and thrills her all at the same time.
Lacey breaks the kiss and Seth makes a kind of strangled sound at the loss of her lips on his.
“Let’s go home,” she says, breathless.
“Yeah?” Seth’s eyes spark.
She nods, gulps. “Yeah.”
Her part in the party’s done. She’s ready to let responsibilities slide, take Seth back to her place, get him in bed.
Seth grins. His lean hand cups the nape of her neck, ready to bring her in once more to his lips.
But he doesn’t.
He freezes. Stares, dumbfounded. “You’re hot as hell, Lace.”
“Thank you,” she says, happiness flooding her. “So are you.”
“No.” His eyes, dark with concern, sweep over her. He brushes her hair away from her face, but when he does, instead of falling away, it sticks to her brow. “You’re burnin’ up, Lacey.”
She opens her mouth to tell him he’s an idiot, when a sudden stabbing pain, like the sting of a bee, has her gasping.
Dizziness crashes over her like a wave. Lacey clutches at the side of her stomach and feels a strange wetness there.
When she pulls her hand away, she stares in horror. Blood, sticky and warm, coats her entire palm.