Tremble (Denazen #3)(43)
On the other side of the car, Kale got out as well.
“Are you sorry because you sucked face with my sister? That you’ve threatened to kill me several times? Or maybe you’re sorry that you’ve essentially kidnapped me?”
There was an edge of hysteria to my voice that, while it scared me, was somewhat comforting. Each day that passed without Kale was like a cancer that ate away my soul. For months it built, the pressure coming so close to consuming me, but I’d kept it together. Now, though, that buildup had finally reached the breaking point.
“Or,” I continued, stomping around the car to stand in front of him, “maybe you’re sorry that you can’t remember me? Could you be sorry because you’re too weak to admit you have strong feelings for me—even though you don’t understand them? Maybe you feel sorry for the poor, lovesick girl who’s sticking around in hopes of getting the most important person in her life back—just in time to die.” I smacked my head and stomped my foot hard. “That’s it! You’re sorry you just condemned me to death? Is that right? Because that’s what you did by dragging me from that house without Penny Mills. I’m as good as dead now. I’m dead. She’s dead. Ashley’s dead. So many innocent people—dead! Is that why you’re sorry?”
He waited. Patiently standing there while I raged in the middle of the road like a raving lunatic. The light had since changed colors—several times—but no other cars had come. Once I finished, breath coming in short rasps and heart hammering like the bass in the back of Brandt’s old jeep, he pushed off the car and was in front of me. Pinning me tightly between the back door and his body, he leaned close.
Intoxicatingly warm breath tickling my neck, he whispered in my ear. “Maybe I’m sorry about none of it.” His lips didn’t touch my skin, but I could feel them, excruciatingly close, as he moved down my neck and then back up again, trailing imaginary kisses all the way to my ear. Skimming the edge of my jaw with the tip of his nose, he pulled back, bright blue eyes affixed to mine. “Or maybe I’m sorry about all of it.”
How fast could the human heart beat before it exploded? How much could the body take before it simply caved?
There was so much going on in that moment. The fierce, hungry look in his eyes. A look that was at war with the language of his body.
Get closer.
Stay far away.
Touch her.
Don’t touch her.
Love her.
Kill her.
I opened my mouth to speak but could only gasp when he leaned even closer. Icy blue eyes kept me rooted as his jaw tightened. It was like he was concentrating. Trying hard to see me—really see me. “You’re right. I am lying. I have very strong feelings for you. I just don’t know if they’re good or—”
He never finished. Instead, he mashed his lips to mine, fingers gripping my hips hard enough to guarantee bruises. I could barely move—barely breathe—but I didn’t care. If I was going to die, then this was how I wanted to go out. He might not be 100 percent my Kale, but Kale was Kale. I would take him any way I could.
One minute we were pressed against the back driver’s side door, the next we were scooting toward the trunk, lost in each other. Our lips never broke contact. Not as he hefted me onto the trunk or as I wrapped my legs around his waist, securing him tightly as his fingers wound through the belt loops of my jeans.
The kiss at Ashley’s hadn’t done my memories justice. Granted, it’d been quick and mainly for shock value, but this… This was the fire I remembered. Even with Kale’s thoughts of me buried out of reach, I seemed to have an effect on him. I’d kissed a lot of guys in my life, but his reactions—even now—were unlike any I’d ever experienced.
He kissed me as though I were life itself. Precious and balanced precariously on the edge of everything. With each passing moment it grew more heated. It were as if he was waking up from an eternity of sleep and trying to make up for the time we’d lost. He was Sleeping Beauty and I was the prince.
God only knew how far we would have taken it if a car hadn’t pulled up behind us and the driver hadn’t leaned on his horn.
We pulled apart, breath labored. The driver swerved around us, screaming a string of colorful phrases, and peeled away, tires squealing as he disappeared down the road into darkness.
When I turned back, Kale was staring at me. “I… That was…”
Something rattled in the alley behind us. The streetlight on the other side of the road was out, so when I turned to look I almost missed it. The subtle flash of something metallic. “Shit,” I breathed. My legs were still wrapped around Kale’s waist, and when I threw myself sideways off the trunk of the car, he followed by default. The dart sailed harmlessly above us.
“Denazen,” I whispered, peering around the edge of the car. Sure. Someone couldn’t drive up now, right? It had to be in the middle of that awesome kiss? It was official. The universe had a grudge against me. Though maybe the driver had done us a favor. If not for him, I was pretty sure Denazen could have danced their way to the car with bells on and tranqued us at close range before we knew what was going on.
Kale dropped to his stomach as something dinged the side of the car. “They’re surrounding us. We need to move.” He grabbed my arm and shoved me toward the back wheel. “Get underneath.”