A Brush with Love(67)
Dan tried to make sense of her words. “Are you telling me you’re offended by my … height?”
Her eyes were angry saucers, and red blotches burned her cheeks.
“No. I’m telling you that I’m offended that you reduce me to some sort of infatuated teenager. You consume all my thoughts and fry my nerves every time you look at me. And you just get to stand there. Completely unaffected and immune to the ridiculous nightmare you’re putting my system through. And on top of that, you’re asking for something I’m not sure I can do.”
Dan studied her. Challenge burned in the depths of her eyes, long lashes flicking up and down as she stared back at him. Her nostrils flared as she sucked in deep breaths, her chest rising sharply with the effort.
She was so beautiful.
“If you think I’m immune to you,” he said slowly, “you aren’t as bright as your reputation holds.”
Her eyes shot wide with indignation. “Excuse me?”
He pressed his finger against her lips and watched a gentle tremble course through her body.
“If you can stand there—looking like a fucking dream with that perfect little mouth that tastes so sweet, and those big, round eyes that I want to see looking up at me while I’m over your body—and think you don’t make my heart hammer and my palms sweat, make me half-hard every time you walk into the room, you don’t have a clue.”
Her pupils dilated and Dan watched the pulse beating in her throat. He wanted to run his teeth over the spot.
“You want to talk about consuming thoughts?” Dan’s voice was a hoarse whisper. “You are the only thing I can think about. How to make you laugh. Smile. Blush. I don’t think about anything without it being in the context of you. I lie in bed every night and think about your voice, the way your nose crinkles when you laugh, the way your eyes go wide every time I catch you looking at me when you think I’m not paying attention. I replay the feel of your kiss, wonder what every inch of your skin would feel like, naked, against my hands. If you think you aren’t running through my mind on loop until I want to crawl out of my skin with wanting you, then you have no clue what the word ‘unaffected’ means.”
He moved toward her.
Closer.
Closer still.
Both were fighting for air. Jagged breaths heaved their chests, just molecules and heat separating them from crashing together.
Every cell in Dan’s body challenged her to contradict the energy between them, to deny that a spark so violent could exist, and Harper’s wild eyes returned the dare.
Time constricted around them like a skin, moving too slowly for the speed of his heart and the immobility of his body. After an eternity in just a moment, Harper lifted her chin even higher, and her gaze pierced through him.
“If I don’t know,” she breathed, the words caressing his skin, punching at every nerve, “then teach me.”
Dan crashed his mouth against her, not caring where it landed just as long as it was on her, and demanded more than words could give. His body caged her against the wall, and she pushed into him with her full force, arms locking around his neck.
There was no tenderness from either of them. It was the violent result of pent-up need—of tamping down the excruciating feelings they’d both been denying. It was messy and raw, the restrained heat and attraction pouring from their bodies.
Harper ripped his jacket open, clawing to get it off his arms, while Dan dragged his teeth against the curve of her neck, desperate for the taste of her, his mind feasting on her gasps.
“Is this happening?” The words tore from her throat in a ragged pant against his lips as his hands found the swell of her breasts.
Dan nodded, lips still pressed against her mouth. “Yes,” he groaned against her skin. “Anything. Everything. Whatever you want. Nothing you don’t.” He dragged his tongue across her collarbone and lapped at the hollows. “But I can’t keep my hands off you any longer.”
He gripped at her hips and lifted her. Harper wrapped her legs around his waist, digging her heels into his back as she pushed closer against his mouth. He moved down the narrow hallway toward her bedroom, desperate to lay her down and worship her body.
Any hunger Dan felt, Harper returned. Her hands clawed at his shoulders and tangled in his hair. Kisses and bites bruised his lips.
More than once she pushed herself into him, trying to clutch him closer, making him lose balance and crash against the wall. He growled against her lips, and she wrapped herself even tighter.
He felt drugged by her abandon. Every sigh and gasp ripped his heart from his chest. He felt her walls crumbling to dust, left behind in the hall as they moved together.
He dropped her hips onto the edge of the bed, lavishing kisses against her temple.
Her jaw.
Her throat.
Anywhere his lips could reach.
Her shaky fingers fumbled with the buttons of his shirt, and he moved back just long enough to tear it over his head. His body jerked at the feel of her hands tracing over the planes of his stomach, and he wanted to press into her touch until they were fused.
Her clever fingers moved to his pants, undoing the button and pulling down the zipper, pushing them lower until he could kick out of them.
Dan grabbed fistfuls of her sweater and pulled it over her body, then unclasped her bra. He feasted on the sight of her. His heart pounded in an uneven intensity that made every inch of his skin feel more than he thought was possible.