Kaleidoscope (Colorado Mountain #6)(34)

Deck moved faster.

He cut her off and she tried rounding him so he shifted and cut her off again.

She took two steps back and squared off, eyes slicing back to his.

“Let me pass, Jacob,” she demanded.

“Baby, you gotta—”

He didn’t get that out. For some reason, his words tripped something in her and she advanced, fast. Shoving a palm into his chest, she pushed hard. He rocked back and caught her wrist in his hand.

“Emme—”

“I missed you.”

Fuck.

“Em—”

She leaned into him and her hand. “You played me.”

His hand tightened around her wrist and he growled, “I f**kin’ did not.”

“Bullshit,” she snapped.

“Listen to me.”

“Fuck that,” she bit out. “This is for the birds. Next time I’m puking my guts out and so goddamned tired, I want to cry because I have to pull myself out of bed to get a 7Up to settle my stomach but I’m too f**king tired to even cry, I won’t lie there and think how f**ked-up shitty it is to be so goddamned alone and so f**king lonely. Scared I’ll die, no one will care. No man. No kids. Fuck that. I’ll lie there knowing all I had and all I ever had to depend on is me and that’ll get me through.”

Fuck!

“Emme, shut it and f**kin’ listen to me,” he ordered.

“No f**king way,” she hissed. “Let go of my hand.”

“Listen to me.”

“Let go!” she yelled, twisting her wrist to get away.

But he took a step back at the same time yanking her with him. Then he took a step forward so she collided with his frame. Her other hand came up to break her fall so when he let her wrist go and clamped both arms around her, she was stuck, her arms caught between them.

She struggled.

His arms got tighter.

She stopped struggling and her head jerked back. “Let me go.”

“I can’t talk about my work.”

“Yeah,” she tossed back. “Bet that’s even more so when it’s a mark you’re playing for your work asking about said work.”

“Emme, you weren’t a mark. Honest to God, I was as surprised as you when I met you on the street, and I didn’t know you were involved in the investigation they were contracting me for until ten minutes after we made plans for dinner.”

“Now I bet you were glad you made that date,” she shot back with extreme sarcasm.

“Yeah, I was, babe, because,” his arms grew tighter and his face dipped closer, “I missed you too.”

“Well, you know, seeing as you lived not far away for a while and you have awesome powers, I figure if you did miss me so damned much, you could have done something about it. That was a door you had to open, Jacob, and we both know it. But you didn’t. Not until I was dating a felon you were investigating. So forgive me if I find the coincidence too much to take. But I f**king,” she got up on her toes, narrowed those f**king beautiful eyes, her fire dancing in them, and she finished, “do.”

She wouldn’t shut up and listen?

He’d shut her up and communicate a different way.

So he did.

He slid one hand up to cup the back of her head, tilted it and crushed his mouth to hers.

She struggled, opening her mouth to protest and he slid his tongue inside.

Fuck, she smelled of strawberries and tasted like them too. Fresh, cool and sweet.

At the touch of his tongue, Emme went completely still.

Deck pressed his advantage and deepened the kiss, drinking from her mouth, taking all he could get.

Christ. Unbelievable.

It became more unbelievable.

Because two seconds in, she… went… wild.

Fingers fisting in his shirt, pulling him to her even when he had nowhere to go, she rolled further up on her toes, tilted her head more, tangled her tongue with his and pressed everything she had deep, her whimper filling his mouth.

Not unbelievable.

Phenomenal.

Without releasing her mouth, Deck shifted back an inch to give her her arms and she instantly tugged them out but only to curl her fingers in his jacket and yank it down his arms.

He let her go and shrugged it off. Mouths still connected, after his jacket dropped to the floor, he walked her backward.

Her hands went back to his shirt at the sides, wrenching it up, pulling it out of his jeans then they dove in, skin against skin, her touch warm, light, slightly tentative, definitely searching, discovering.

He steadied her with an arm around her waist, bowing his back to keep her mouth, and walked her down the three steps to his great room before he angled her to the couch.

She pulled one hand out of his shirt and slid it up his chest, it curled around the side of his neck then slid up in his hair and she held his mouth to hers.

He twisted them and fell back over the arm of the couch, taking her with him.

She landed on his body and he rolled instantly, trapping her underneath him, all the while he kept at her mouth.

She didn’t deny him, one hand roaming, losing the shyness, becoming confident, another little mew slid down his throat and her nails dragged down the skin over his spine.

He tore his mouth from hers to mutter, “Fuck, baby.”

Eyes closed, she lifted her head and pressed her lips against his, this time her tongue slid into his mouth.