The air in the room shifted as my chest rises and falls to the music. My pulse flips, but that wasn’t what he’d asked. More concerned about my well-being than his own.
My blood warms under his touch. Pressing his forehead to my own we were still in the middle of the dance floor, not moving. I should feel concerned but something about having Cole near always put me at ease.
I couldn’t explain it. His company soothing me like nothing else ever had.
His eyelashes flutter along my eyelids. “Rory, I need you to be okay,” he says on a strangled breath.
The people in the room around us diminished. Fading out completely. Just me and Cole in this moment. Cemented against one another staying like that.
Another song starts but we still don’t move.
He pulls away and his eyes burn so strongly that they made me question everything. “I need you to be okay. I need more than that…”
My head and my heart quieted. Emotions stagnant as I held my breath, waiting on him to finish. The arrogance I associated with his personality was gone and my chest burned. Eyes pleading with me to understand.
He levels his gaze. “You never leave my mind. Not a minute ticks off before you’re back in there,stuck.”
Electricity sparking around us as thick as smoke.
“I’m selfish, Rory,” he says on a pause. Running his tongue over his teeth. “And you only being in there, that’s not enough for me, not anymore.”
My heart raced while everything else stayed quiet. Fire fuels behind his eyes pushing him to continue. The link holding us together tightens with each new word.
“I want you to look at me and not be unsure if I feel the same, because I do, baby.” He groans, “More than you know I do. I want you to call me out because hearing your smart mouth is, I swear, one of the sexiest things alive. I want you, every single piece.”
Cole’s gaze locked on mine and I couldn’t see anything else. Why would I need to when my world was already standing in front of me?
The temperature in the room was escalating, or maybe that was us?
“The good, the bad—the in-between. All of it. I need it, princess.” The one side of his mouth lifts in that sure way I’d grown to love. “Just you. Just me.”
I whisper his name like a prayer and his pupils dilate.
My breathing had been irregular but now it was low and handicapped. He dropped his head, bowing it sluggishly between us.
“Be with me, Rory, be mine.” His voice more desperate but not any less daring. “It’s all I need. All I want.” Eyes molten like lava.
I lick my lips that are suddenly dry. He watches with unhurried anticipation.
“I think… we don’t always get what we want,” I start, and his face lowers the slightest bit. “But sometimes I think hatred is really disguised attraction.”
His chin raises but his eyes don’t move when I hesitate again. Cole hanging on to every word like I had his.
“You say you need me.Wantme… but you didn’t realize I already was all those things. You were too blinded by your own doubt to see you already had me.Youalready hadme, Iceman,” I repeat with more confidence.
It takes Cole about half a second to register what I said before his lips crashed onto mine and he was kissing me. Deep and passionately.
One line and he was a goner. My heart surging right along with it. It shouts, rumbling in the best, most amazing way possible.
Cole wanted me, and I wanted him, and that’s all that mattered.
His delectable lips smothered me. They are surprisingly tender as his hands still cup my face.
Desire surges my veins charging them in need. A bone-deep ache raking through me. I needed more of him. I wantedallof him.
I knew he felt the same when he pulls away and his features are tight, a hungered thirst filling every crevice. His breath unsated and eager.
Desire for me, I think, and my toes curl.