Sweet Peril (The Sweet Trilogy #2)(36)

Open the door and step away from him, Anna. Pretend you didn’t notice. He didn’t know my olfactory sense always got away from me when my emotions ran high, allowing me to smell lustful pheromones.

But then Kope’s conversation with Kai came back to me, and a sudden torrent of emotions racked my system. I hated the horrible feeling that I was holding on to something I never really had to begin with.

He’ll never let you love him.

Hurt coursed through my system. I wanted to let go of it all. A sudden blast of angry rebellion pounded inside me. With my body still touching Kope’s, I slowly turned my head and tilted it up toward him. We stayed like that for a moment, faces close in the darkness, very still.

“Hey,” I whispered.

He did not answer. Instead, another blast of intoxicating richness filled the space, prompting my body to turn and face him. Urged on by adrenaline and a speeding pulse, I reached up and ran my fingers along the back of his neck. I couldn’t believe I was doing this, but a shadow of darkness was expanding inside me. Kopano’s whole body was still, like a rock.

Too much tumbled through my mind, emotions pinging off my heart and sloshing through my stomach. Wants, needs, confusions, affections, heartaches . . . they all ran together like colliding trains, wrecking me. Or making me reckless.

I half expected him to stop me—to turn his head away as he’d done to the flight attendant, or reach around me and fling open the door. But he didn’t. So I gently tugged his neck.

Like an exploding rocket, Kope was crushing his full lips against mine and pressing my back hard against the closed door. A stunned breath escaped my mouth before I responded, fingers feeling his thick hair, marveling at his body against mine. I let myself get lost in the moment.

It felt so good to be kissed—really kissed, by someone who wasn’t holding back an ounce of passion—someone who was letting go just as much as me.

I didn’t stop him when he grabbed my leg, hiking it around his hip. His smooth hand pushed up the skirt and roamed the back of my thigh.

Whoa.

Whoa.

Whoa.

I pulled my face away from him as the weight of our predicament came crashing down.

“Kope?” My breaths were fast and raspy.

With a firm grip on my neck, he brought my face back to his for another kiss, then grabbed my other leg and lifted me clear off the ground, holding me up with both hands. Um . . . wow.

“W-wait,” I said, discombobulated.

He broke away from my mouth, only to devour the length of my neck with his hot, soft lips. I let out a small moan. His hands and mouth were wild on me, and it was so un-Kopano-ish.

“Hold on, Kope.” I tried to push him, but he was working the path of my collarbone, and he was so strong. I shoved again, but he was like a giant boulder in motion.

“Kope! Stop!” I shouted and pushed away hard with my arms, squirming until he dropped me and jumped away, panting. My back was already against the door, so my feet caught underneath me and I didn’t fall. Mops and brooms clattered. I tried to use my night vision, but there was barely any light coming from under the door, so I couldn’t see his expression.

“Anna . . .” His voice was stricken.

“You didn’t do anything wrong.” My heart still pounded too hard.

“Forgive me, Anna. Please.”

I instinctively reached for his hands, my heart breaking as regret flooded through me.

“There’s nothing to forgive, Kope. I started it. Please don’t feel bad.”

But he still hung his head. “I wanted this for so long, and I knew . . . I knew I would not be in control of myself.”

I didn’t quite understand why the king of self-control would be worried about losing control from a kiss. But he had. Something else was going on here.

“You know you can tell me anything, right, Kope?”

“It’s too shameful,” he whispered.

“No.” I rubbed my thumbs across his.

“I . . . Anna . . . Wrath is not the only sin that plagues me. It’s not even my primary sin.”

What? My hands stilled. He had more than one vice? How was that possible?

Things began clicking into place. Like the way he reacted every time a woman flirted or touched him, with the exception of Marna who was like a sister. He’d always been so careful not to make contact or even look if he could avoid it.

Lust. And wrath. A dangerous combination.

As much as I wanted to comfort him, I didn’t dare hug him. Instead I held his hands tighter.

“Who else knows?” I asked.

“My father and two blood brothers . . . and Kaidan.”

Oh.

“He is very observant. He asked me the second day we met. He was young at the time, but somehow he knew.”

I swallowed hard.

“I promise not to tell anyone, Kope. Let’s just go back to the hotel and try to figure out all this stuff about Flynn. ’Kay?”

“Yes. Okay.”

I did a quick check to make sure my skirt was adjusted properly before opening the closet door. We didn’t so much as glance in the other’s direction the entire walk back to our hotel.

Clearly this was going to be more than just a minor hurdle for us to get past. As we went in silence to our own rooms, it became clear that I had ruined any friendship we’d built. So much for trying to figure things out about Flynn. We couldn’t even bring ourselves to talk.