I closed my eyes in drew in a deep smiling breath. “Your scent: I can’t get enough of it. I would much prefer you, the real source, but I’ve had to settle for sniffing your shirt to keep things from getting all weird if I started sniffing you instead. Why do you think I’ve been wearing your shirt since you gave it to me?”
I popped the collar of his shirt before giving it a good shoulder-lifting sniff to drive home my comments. I spotted the smile shining in his eyes at my action and the recognition that I wasn’t feeding him a bunch of bullshit.
“Unfortunately, for me, with you, I know I have to be hands-off, which really sucks.”
“What about this?” he asked, pointing at his eye. “It doesn’t creep you out?”
“Adds a serious edge to your hotness,” I answered without having to think about the question.
He lifted his gaze to the view, and so did I. I had revealed things I was supposed to keep to myself, to the man that I wasn’t supposed to want. However, I was finding that when it came to Khane, my off-limits meter wasn’t malfunctioning, it was broken.
“So, you’ve never dated…anyone?” I couldn’t leave it alone.
“Nope. There’s no point.”
My brow lifted. “Why? No connection? Bad sex? You just like being alone?”
When his gaze captured mine this time, it didn’t hold just my eyes, it held my body and caused me to fight back a squirm.
“None of the above. It’s that I’ve always wanted something else. Since I knew I couldn’t have it, I’d settle for temporary fixes.”
Glaring at him under my lashes, his stare hadn’t released me yet. “What was it that you wanted?” His eyes dropped at the question, and his body seemed to deflate as he released a long breath. “It doesn’t matter,” he replied in a low tone. What was I missing? I had caught a flash of something in his gaze that I didn’t know how to translate, like a secret whispered while I slept.
After a paused moment, I snapped, one part campaigning for safety, the other part urging me to be bad. I was always the behaved Evans. Why not embrace what it meant to truly be an Evans and flirt with the type of danger a true Evans would, without giving a damn about the consequences.
I sensed Khane eyeing me when I slid closer to him, especially since I hadn’t left a single inch of space between us. The warmth from his leg pressed against mine was enough to flow along the surface of my full body.
“Khane,” I breathed his name, my heart rate already up and running from being in close proximity of him. He had my heat level set on blazing, and my body spewing sexual impulses that left me crazed. He sat deathly still, his fingers gripping the top of his knees so hard they were white-knuckled.
“Yes,” he finally answered me. His tone rang smooth and calm and was in direct contrast to his clenched posture. I noticed the quick and choppy movement of his chest, thrilled that I wasn’t the only one fighting the potent attraction between us.
A deep sigh escaped before my words. “I don’t know what’s going on between us, but I don’t want to fight it anymore. I want to touch you. I want to know what it would be like to kiss you.”
His hard swallow sounded loud, as the impact of my words tightened his grip to the point that his hands shook.
“I have a loyalty to my brother that I must uphold. I’ve already crossed the line with you, and I can’t let it happen again,” he replied, his gaze aimed straight ahead. I, on the other hand, had my eyes roaming every close-up inch of him. His heady male scent was even more intoxicating from those deadly pull-ups he had been doing and the effort he was exerting to keep his hands off of me.
“Why? Because I’m marrying him?” I replied. “We don’t live in an honest world, Khane. We live by darkness. We live within the chaos we were born into. We live by codes that were set forth by some long-dead power holders. You’re a soldier, and I’m nothing but a pawn being used to strengthen not one, but two power bases. I want to be happy, even if for a stolen moment.”
My abrupt movement when I stood caused him to flinch and flash me a sharp glare, but the look melted away as quickly as it had appeared. I turned into the triangle of his powerful legs, forcing them to widen so I could stand between them. His hungry gaze met mine, visual feedback that this wasn’t a one-way attraction.
If he wanted me to move, he would have to put his hands on a part of my body. I had gotten so worked up, at this point, I didn’t care where, I just wanted his hands on me.
The fronts of my legs made contact with the muscular insides of his, causing him to suck in a deep gasp. My face was about a half foot above his, my gaze boring into his.
“Is this some kind of game? There is only so much I can take.” His question and statement were a warning.
He sucked in a deep gust when my palm stroked his cheek on the side where he couldn’t see well. With a close-up view of his damaged eye, I found that it didn’t blur with a foggy overcast like I had seen before in the blind. The iris reflected a darker gray where it was once brown. The imperfection didn’t take away from the beauty I saw in him, his handsome masculine strength, or his intoxicating allure. What others might see as a disability or defect, to me, fit Khane’s personality perfectly. The man was beautiful on the most masculine spectrum of the word.
His hands remained clenched at his knees as his body shook to contain the same coiled passion as mine. I trapped his face between my palms, and stared into his eyes that hadn’t left me since I stepped between his legs.
My body began to bend to him of its own accord, the movement closing the space between us. His heaving chest moved us, enough to hide the tremble in me. Our harsh breaths met and mingled before we breathed each other. Why did I fear him rejecting me more than the consequences of the actions I was set to take?
Inches before our lips connected, he surrendered to the near-suffocating tension between us. The resistance he had fought so hard to cling to was released as his body relaxed. The connection of his warm cheek against my fingertips set off a light tingle, while his strong arms wrapped around me and tightened so that our bodies merged into one.
Although I had leaned in, I hadn’t yet initiated contact. My lips sat less than an inch from his. I waited, for him to turn away, to push me away, to get up, but he did neither. We sat at that moment, deciding if we wanted to cross the dangerous line that was blurring by the second.
The decision was made for us. I found myself being lulled in by a warm caressing force that made our lips meet at the same time.