Perversion (Perversion Trilogy #1)(39)

“That’s not what I’m thinking. That’s not the look on my face. You’re wrong.”

But my entire body comes alive at the thought of Grim’s lips on mine. He’s not wrong. He’s right. So right it’s like he’s peering inside my mind. My skin feels tight around my muscles. My entire being tingles in anticipation of something that’s NOT going to happen.

“Not even a little bit,” I tell him.

He gives me a look that says exactly what he knows I am. Liar.

“Fine, I’ll make you a deal,” he says. “One kiss. If you still want to go, you can go.” He leans in closer. He pushes a hair from my eyes and tucks it behind my ears, searching my eyes for an answer. “You’re not going to be able to lie your way through a kiss, Tricks.”

Wanna bet?

One kiss. One kiss and I can go. Grim will be nothing but a memory when I’m on the bus to freedom with Gabby next week. I won’t let him affect me. I can’t.

I shrug. “Sure, but I don’t see the po—” I start to say when Grim reaches over and hauls me onto his lap.

My legs straddle his strong thighs. He tangles his hands in my hair and pulls my face to his. Our lips crush together. Fuck. I knew it was going to be bad, and by bad, I mean…holy shit. It’s not just a kiss. The word alone does what’s happening a huge injustice. It’s something else. Something more.

It’s everything.

The kiss spreads from my mouth to the rest of my body. I feel it everywhere. I feel him everywhere. He opens his mouth, and my reaction is instinctual. I can’t help but to respond by opening my own. Our tongues meet, and it’s as if someone’s shot a gun off at the starting gate.

All bets are off. All lies temporarily forgotten.

The truth is before me, and it’s Grim and here and now.

Wetness pools in my panties, and I fight the urge to grind myself against his lap. Thunder claps overhead. Rain pours down on top of us. We claw at one another like two cats fighting in an alleyway. Angry and pent up and…fuck, he feels so good. My breasts are heavy with need and aching with a pain I didn’t know was possible. We are the only umbrellas we will ever need, and how I wish that were fucking true. I can’t make myself stop anymore, I rock against the hard length of his monstrous erection, wishing there were no clothes separating us.

“Fuck, Tricks. Yes,” he hisses. “You ever felt anything like this?” He groans into my mouth. “I haven’t. Never anything like this. Anything like you. It’s better than I’ve fucking imagined.”

“You’ve imagined?” I ask breathlessly as his mouth sucks and kisses down my neck.

“Since the alley. Before I knew it was even you. All I knew was this feeling. I tried to shove it off, but the rest of me didn’t exactly get the message. I thought of you a lot. At night. Stroking myself.”

He’s so hard beneath me. I’ve never felt anything like it. Never wanted to. But I can’t help the urge that comes over me to see it. Touch it.

Taste it.

“I’ve never…been kissed, or anything,” I reply hastily. “Just our accidental one. Only you.”

It’s only ever been you.

He holds my face in his hands. “I can tell you that they don’t feel like this. Not fucking EVER.” He pauses. “I still can’t believe it’s you.” He strokes his thumb over my bottom lip. “My Tricks,” he groans, before starting the kiss all over again.

This time we’re even more aggressive, pulling at each other’s hair and biting at one another’s lips. I wish our clothes barrier was the only barrier between us, but it’s not. There’s a much bigger and deadlier one.

My Tricks.

I suddenly feel sick. I feel like the traitor I am, but never signed up to be.

“I…I just can’t,” I say, pulling away and leaping off his lap.

“Tricks!” Grim calls, standing from the seat just as lightning strikes a power pole in the bay, causing a bright firework type explosion followed by a rain of sparks falling into the shiny black water.

Grim turn’s his head toward the bay. I don’t waste the distraction. I make a run for it. I’m out of the stadium and far down the footpath splashing through the mud. Rain soaks through my clothes. Thunder booms overhead and in my heart. I trip and fall face first into the mud, wishing it was a sink hole and would swallow me down into the earth. So, I wouldn’t have to feel this way. So, I wouldn’t have to run from the only person in the world I’ve ever connected with besides Gabby.

Grim’s booming voice rises above the thunder and rain, echoing all around me, surrounding me in his own anger and pain. “You can lie with your words, but your body tells the truth. You can’t fucking run from this, Tricks!”

“Yes, I can. I have to,” I whisper. “Or, so many people will die because of me.”

The pain in my heart makes my vision blur. I lift myself from the mud and choke back sobs as I run from what most would consider the most frightening man on the planet. But to me. He’s Tristan. Grim. I’m not running from him. I’m running from war. From needless bloodshed. I’m running from the dangerous feeling I get when I’m around him. The one that makes me feel like I’m home for the first time in my life.

As I’ve thought before, telling Grim I’m with Los Muertos only has two possible outcomes. One, is that he kills me because of who I am and starts another war. Two, is that he fights for me, and starts another war.