I’m not sure what woke me, but as I blinked my eyes open I found myself staring into a pair of bright green eyes. I smiled. “Hey,” I murmured.
One side of his full lips tipped up. “Hey there, sleeping beauty…”
Over his shoulder, the sky had deepened to a denim blue. “Did you kiss me awake?”
“I did.” Daemon was propped on his side, using his arm to support his head. He placed his hand on my stomach and my chest fluttered in response. “Told you, my lips have mystical powers.”
My shoulders moved in a silent laugh. “How long have you been here?”
“Not long.” His eyes searched mine. “I found Blake sulking around the woods. He didn’t want to leave while you were out here.”
I rolled my eyes.
“As much as it bothers me, I’m glad he didn’t.”
“Wow. Pigs are flying.” When he narrowed his eyes, I lifted my hand, running my fingers through the soft waves that fell over his forehead. His eyes drifted shut and my breath caught. “How’s Dawson?”
“Calmed down. How’s Kitten?”
“Sleepy.”
“And?”
Slowly, I trailed my fingers down the side of his face, along his broad cheek and down the hard line of his jaw. He turned into my palm, pressing his lips to it. “Happy you’re here.”
His fingers made quick work of the light cardigan I was wearing, separating the thin flaps of material. His knuckles brushed against the tank top I had on underneath. “And?”
“And glad I didn’t get eaten by a bear or coyote.”
He arched a brow. “What?”
I grinned. “Apparently they’re a problem around here.”
Daemon shook his head. “Back to talking about me.”
Instead of telling him, I showed. As Daemon would say, it was the book lover in me. Showing was so much better than telling. My fingers smoothed over his bottom lip and then I moved my hand to his chest. I lifted my head and he met me halfway.
The kiss started off tentative and smooth. Silky kisses created a yearning that was becoming all too familiar. The sensation of his lips against mine, the knowledge of what I wanted, sparked deep inside us and our hearts picked up together, beating heavily and fast. I let myself fall into that kiss, drown in it, become it. The swelling wave of feelings was hard to process. At once both exhilarating and frightening. I was ready, had been ready, and yet I knew I was scared, because like Daemon had said before: humans were afraid of the unknown. And Daemon and I had been hovering on the verge of the unknown for a while.
He pressed down until I was flat on my back, and he was above me, his weight perfect and crazy. His hand slid up, bunching the material, his fingers grazing. The touch was too much and not enough. My chest rose and fell rapidly as his leg moved over mine, between mine. When he broke away, I gasped for air, for control I was quickly losing.
“I need to stop,” he said roughly, eyes closing tightly, lashes fanning the tips of his cheeks. “Like, right now.”
I threaded my fingers through the curls at the back of his neck, hoping he didn’t notice how badly my hand shook. “Yeah, we should.”
He nodded, but then he lowered his head and kissed me again. Good to see he had the same amount of willpower as I did, which was zilch. My hands slid down his back, digging into the shirt he wore, finding their way under it, splaying across his warm skin. I curled my leg around his. We were close, so close that even if our hearts hadn’t beat in tandem before, it wouldn’t have mattered, because they would’ve found each other and joined now.
Our breaths were coming fast. This was insane. Perfect. His hand crept under my shirt, moving up and up, and every part of me wanted to press the stop button on the world and then hit repeat so I could feel this way over and over again.
Daemon stiffened.
“Oh, dear God and baby Jesus in the manger, my eyes!” Dee shrieked. “My eyes!”
My own eyes snapped open. Daemon lifted his head, eyes luminous. Then I realized my hands were still up his shirt. I yanked them out.
“Oh my God,” I whispered, mortified.
Daemon said something that burned my ears. “Dee, you didn’t see anything.” And then he added much lower, “Because you have impeccable timing.”
“You were on…her and your mouths were doing this.” I could just imagine her hand signals at that point. She went on. “And that’s more than I want to see. Like, ever.”
I pushed at Daemon’s chest, and he rolled off. I sat up and twisted around, keeping my head low so my hair could hide my burning cheeks. I caught sight of Dee and even though you’d think she’d caught us buck naked in the act, instead of making out, she was grinning.
“What do you want, Dee?” Daemon said.
She huffed, pressing her hands on her hips. “Well, I don’t want anything from you. I wanted to talk to Katy.”
My head jerked up, embarrassment be damned. “You do?”
“Ash and I were going to this new little shop in Moorefield Saturday afternoon. They sell vintage dresses. For prom,” she added as I continued to stare at her.
“Prom?” I didn’t get it.
“Yeah, prom’s at the end of the month.” She glanced at her brother, her cheeks turning rosy. “Most of the dresses are going to be gone. And I don’t know if the place has anything, but Ash heard about it and you know how she is with clothes, so she’s in the know. Like, a couple of days ago, she found this really cute cropped sweater that—”