kisses. She may be a bit of a recluse, but she wasn’t a hermit. And oh, but this felt like some kind of faery tale when the handsome prince showed up to woo the princess with glass slipper in hand.
Not that there was any slipper she could see. What girl could walk on glass, anyway, without breaking it? She preferred to keep bloodshed out of her faery tales.
Zoë crooked her finger, inviting him inside with a silent dare. Her normal cautionary inhibitions slipped away as she stood in Kaz’s intent brown gaze. Sort of brown and gold blended together, she decided of his eye color. Freckled eyes alive with expression. She could stare into them all night long.
Kaz walked her up against the wall, and braced a forearm against it, paralleling her head.
“Your hair is interesting,” he noted in a bemused tone. He swept his gaze down the white streak that spilled from roots to tips in an inch-wide swath.
“Does it bother you?”
“Not at all. It’s pretty to look at. Like your mouth. Your lips are soft and pink and when you dash out the tip of your tongue like that I want to taste it.”
“What’s stopping you?”
Kiss number three landed on her mouth with a sigh and a press of skin to skin, yet it encompassed things about her that felt needy and wanting. Kissing usually happened in the dark, and during a heated race to sex. She rarely enjoyed a kiss merely for the sake of it. And the thought of starting a race felt wrong.
Such luxury he gifted her. And wrapped in a dreamy kind of faery tale she wanted to read all night long.
Inviting him to taste her breaths, Zoë opened her mouth a little wider. Kaz’s tongue explored and caressed hers. Slow, lazy, he moaned as he placed his palm against her back, gently affirming his control.
And then suddenly the kiss was not there. Instead, Kaz beat the wall beside her head with a fist.
Rudely startled from the amazing fall into bliss, Zoë gaped up at the stranger she had foolishly allowed across her threshold.
“There’s another reason I’m here,” he said. Now his look admonished, yet curiously. “About a matter of something gone missing from my, er...person.”
Zoë flashed him her best innocent cat-burglar smile, and followed with a flutter of how-can-you-not-forgive-me lashes tossed in for good measure. “Something you were carrying before the fight?”
“Yes.”
“Whatever it was, you probably dropped it while beating on those idiots.”
“Possibly, but I looked around and couldn’t find the missing item. I’m inclined to believe this a case of sticky fingers.”
“Huh.” Zoë made a show of looking at her fingers. “My fingers are not at all sticky and—” Was that faery dust embedded in the whorls on her fingertips?
“Sparkly?” Kaz noted the shimmer despite the spare light in the hallway.
She rubbed her hands down her pants legs. “You know us women. Always putting sparkly stuff on our faces and skin. Just some glitter.”
“Give me back what you took, Zoë. Please?”
He said it so gently, and yet with a sure tone of command, she simply nodded and pointed over her shoulder.
“Up there?” he asked.
With a guilty shrug, she offered, “Sometimes I can’t help myself. It’s a habit.” It was also fun, daring and the only way she could find a thrill lately.
“I need it back. Can’t buy those things at the supermarket.”
“I’ll uh, go get it. You wait here.”
But he didn’t wait in the foyer, and instead, followed her up the spiral staircase. Zoë ran the steps, beating him to the fuchsia door and turning to put up her palm.
“This is my private—” She couldn’t call it her spell room. Kisses aside, she didn’t know him well enough for that yet. “Uh—study. You can’t go in there. You’ll mess up, uh...like my vibes and stuff. I’ll grab it and come right out.”
There was no belief in the doubting look he gave her. The things she did to protect the magic were very necessary.
She opened the door and slipped inside, locking it behind her as she did. “Just give me a minute to find it!”
The thing she had taken sat on the floor beside her backpack. Too bad she had to return it. Whatever it was, she liked it. And well—it was his. He had held it in his wide, strong hand. She stroked the column, imagining his grip about it, and then her thoughts strolled to Kaz’s fingers stroking her skin. Slow and soft, like his kiss. Yet also needy, as his kiss had proven.
She clutched the metal column to her chest. Could he be the rescuing knight she’d never known she needed? Did she need rescuing? Well, no. She was perfectly fine, not in any danger. But the idea of him, so masculine and take-charge—who would shove that out their front door?
A rap on the door spoke his impatience. If she were going to claim kiss number four, she’d better play nice and give him back his toy. Besides, the clock was ticking. She needed to tend the ichor blend soon.
Slipping out, without opening the door so wide he might glimpse her spell work, Zoë held out the thing with a sheepish grin.
“The tip popped out accidentally. Sorry. Is it some kind of weapon?”
He claimed it with a snatch, and compressing the side paddles, the stake part snapped back inside the column. “Something like that.”
“You always carry such an interesting weapon on you?”
“Always.”
“Have you...ever used it on anyone?”
“Many times.”
So he was more than an innocent stranger who had happened to pick a fight with four idiots. The man knew how to handle a dangerous situation. So much so, he was always armed.
“Are you like some kind of avenging angel who rescues those in need? Have you ever killed anyone with that thing? The point is very sharp. It’s less like a blade than something you would stab—”
He silenced her curiosity with a punishing yet much-desired kiss. Don’t mess with me, the kiss seemed to say, and don’t ask stupid questions. But do let me take what I want.
Zoë was cool with that. Very cool with that.
The man’s hand glided along her jaw, sending titters of heat down her neck and chest where her nipples tightened in a pleasurable squeeze. He dived deep inside her mouth with his tongue, tasting, touching and divining. She gave him all that he wanted, and he wanted a lot.
She knew nothing about Kaspar who liked to be called Kaz by friends and those who tended to kiss him. Save that his mouth knew exactly how to fit against hers for maximum pleasure. And that the heat of his body against hers, so wide, hard and strong, felt like some
