The Blood of a Nightlock

Chapter Nineteen

"They already think that."

"It would be worse if they knew it was true. Trust me."

"So you came here to put a stop to the spontaneity of romantic gestures." I thought about it. "And my sexual innuendos."

He silently stared out at the field for a long time before he swung his eyes to me. "I came to say that we shouldn't do that anymore." He agreed.

I nodded as I pulled my hand away slowly.

"But," he sighed, "I don't want to say that."

I waited. "So what do we do?"

He pushed off the railing, grabbed the back of my neck, and pulled me into his chest. I slid my hands from his sides to the middle of his back as he pressed a kiss to my hair and held me tight against him. It was so easy to be close to him. Somewhere along the way this level of comfort with him only increased. Secrets or not. I rested my chin on his chest and he stared down at me, pressing a lingering kiss to my forehead. He slid his hands along either side of my face and continued to stare down at me. I wasn't sure if anyone else would ever be able to look at me like Mitchel did. He looked at me like he'd never seen something so amazing in his life. How would I move on from that? In a way, I felt a little sad. Most people found it hard to walk away from someone for big reasons, I would find it hard to walk away from him knowing he looked at me like that.

I paused, my heart fluttering in my chest as he lowered his lips to mine. I surged to my tippy toes meeting him halfway. This could have been our last kiss... ever. I'd have to memorize everything, the way his lips taste. The way they felt against mine. The way his hands lit a path of fire along my skin when he touched me. My lips parted and his tongue touched mine without hesitation. I took it as an invitation to continue so I slid my hands between us and rested them low on his stomach, collecting the fabric of his shirt in one of them. He broke the kiss, pressing a light one to the tip of my nose, my cheek, and the space below my ear. He lingered there, his teeth grazing along my earlobe.

"You want to know a perk of being Chief?" He whispered.

"Yes." I breathed as his teeth ran up my earlobe.

"I'm good at keeping secrets."

I rolled my head against his forehead. "Me too."

He grabbed my hand and led me back into the room. I watched nervously as he shut the door to the balcony, reached back with the same hand, and yanked his shirt over his head. My eyes slid over the ridges and planes of his perfectly sculpted body. I ran a hand up every ridge of muscle and back down, Mitchel was all work and no play always. And it paid off. He curled the hem of my shirt outward to wrap around his fingers and then he pulled it over my head, free of my body revealing my sports bra and bare midriff. My eyes locked with his as he lowered his lips to mine again, backing me up to the bed as he continued to kiss me. I slid backward against the bed sheets as he crawled over me without breaking the kiss. Somehow this went from a goodbye kiss to more and I wasn't mad about it. But if we did this and we stopped everything... it would crush me.

He dropped his lips to my neck, lightly gliding his teeth along my throat until they dropped to my shoulder and then my collarbone. I held my breath as he drew a line of kisses along my collarbone and around the outline of my sports bra. His lips moved to my stomach, kissing down to the waistband of my pants. I lightly ran my nails on the black ink along his forearm as his lips followed the curve of my pants from hip to hip and then he brought his lips back to mine. I ran a hand along his back until he laced his fingers between mine and lifted our intertwined hands above my head to rest along the headboard. His other hand dropped to the waistband of my pants. He slowly slid a few fingers under the band and when I didn't protest, he slid his hand inside, running his fingers along my panty line.