His hand trembled the slightest bit as he tilted my chin up, and my heart was beating so hard all I could hear was the pulse of it in my ear.
He had just complained about me being crazy, but here he was trying to drive me absolutely mental.
Cade took a step towards me, his knee pressing between my legs as he backed me into the bathroom vanity. Then his hands were gone, leaving my face and dropping to my jeans, clasping behind my thighs as he lifted me onto the sink.
I made an Oh sound, but once again his lips were on mine, and any thoughts of speaking vanished in the span of one breath.
Compared to how cold our clothes were, his mouth was a shock of warmth. His kiss was hesitant and tentative at first, like he was waiting for me to push him away or stop this. But he must think I was crazy if he believed I’d be the one to put the brakes on.
I balled my hands into fists in his shirt, pulling him closer to me, my legs wrapping around his thighs. This was all the invitation he needed to take the kisses from tentative to demanding. Maybe this was nuts, maybe it was a terrible idea, but right now it was the only thing in my world that made sense. His mouth tasted faintly sweet, like mint and desire, and I wanted to lose myself in the solace of his touch.
He pushed against me, hips grinding into mine, and my head bumped the mirror as he devoured me one kiss at a time. The room became a blur, and all that mattered was the burning heat of his skin and the demanding urgency of his passion.
Cade moved his hands from my hips to my waist, then sliding under my shirt and up to my bra, cupping my breasts. His palms were warm, tickling my nipples, which were already rigid from all the wet cloth.
“Tallulah.” He whispered my name against my lips, and the naked desire of his voice, raspy, aching, made me dizzy.
He tried to kiss me again, but this time I stopped him, bracing against his chest to hold him back as I fought to catch my breath.
We couldn’t do this.
Oh, gods help me, I wanted to do this. His hands were still covering my breasts, and only an inch of distance needed to be crossed and I could be kissing him once more. Just thinking of the way his tongue felt against mine was almost enough for me to throw caution to the wind. I could feel how bad he wanted me, pressed between my legs, and I would have given damn near anything to undo his pants and let him have his way with me.
But we couldn’t.
Adrenaline was high, and barely five minutes earlier we’d been trying to kill each other in the shower. A minute before that I’d been so out of control I’d damn near sparked lightning in our motel room. Yes, my body ached for him, demanded him, wanted to feel him all over me. It was like I was filled with a thirst so intense I needed to drink down the whole ocean, and here he was offering me every last drop.
Was I out of my mind to say no to this?
He saw my hesitation and closed the gap, kissing me again, slow and imploring. I moaned, dragging my nails down his chest. His body was strong and firm, and I imagined how good it would look if I could get him out of his wet shirt. I wondered how far the tattoos went.
I let out a shuddering breath and bit his lower lip. I didn’t draw blood, but it was enough to give him pause.
“No.” I forced the word out. Cade was rough around the edges, but he was a gentleman at the core. I hoped he’d understand how hard it was for me to say it.
He stopped like I’d uttered a magic incantation. “No.” He repeated it back to me, but not as a question.
Oh, let me take it back. He could help me forget everything we’d been through in the last two days. His body would be enough to make everything okay, at least for a few hours, while we waited out the last breaths of night.
“I can’t.” I gave him a gentle push and hopped down off the sink.
“Oh.”
I could tell this wasn’t what he’d expected me to say, and it was the last thing I wanted to say. Even though this had to stop now, I felt like I had to add something. “I want to. Gods, Cade…I… You turn my brain to soup. How did a priest learn to kiss like that?”
This brought a smirk to his lips. “I told you I wasn’t temple pure. Did you think I was lying?”
“I definitely don’t now.” I let out a shaky breath. If I had any less willpower, I’d be in his arms right now, ripping the shirt off his body.
“But we can’t?” He asked it as a question, like he was hoping I’d change my mind.
“Not yet.”
“Yet.” He mulled the word over, scrubbing his hands over his cheeks and through his short hair. The way it sounded when his palms scraped against the shaved hairs on the side of his head was so profoundly erotic I almost lost it.
I wanted to say something else to explain my reasoning, but everything that came to mind seemed like an absurd excuse, no matter how real the logic was. We were marked for death by the gods, and I had a demigod’s life to save. While the possibility of being killed at any minute might seem like a powerful motivator to get in one last booty call before I died, the truth was I didn’t need the risk of an added emotional attachment.
Cade wasn’t just anyone, and if the last two days had taught me anything, it was that he wasn’t who I thought he was either. He was, for better or worse, someone I was growing to care about, and that meant sex wouldn’t just be sex.