“Why did you do that?”
“Do what?”
What did he mean do what?
“Why did you kiss me?” I asked breathlessly.
That wasn’t just a kiss, though, and I knew it wasn’t. It was more than that; it was a claiming.
Damien’s eyes were narrowed as he said, “I couldn’t talk to you knowing his lips were the last to touch yours, so ... I fixed it.”
“You fixed it?”
“Yep.”
“You kissed me like that just because you have a stick up your arse about Dante bein’ the last to kiss me?”
Damien’s right eye twitched. “Something like that.”
I threw my hands up in the air.
“You’re un-fuckin’-believable, Damien Slater.”
He surprised me when he grinned and said, “I know.”
I dropped my arms and scowled. “That wasn’t a compliment.”
He shrugged, and repeated, “I know.”
I placed my hands on my hips.
“Don’t kiss me unexpectedly like that ever again.”
“I can kiss you if you expect it then?”
“What? No!”
“Hey.” Damien raised his hands. “I’m just making sure.”
I glared at him. “No more kissin’. I don’t like it.”
Damien’s smile dropped, and he stepped closer to me. “It’s not nice to lie.”
I licked my lips, shivering when I tasted him on them.
“I’m not ly—”
“You’re still lying,” he said, his voice firm as he took another step closer to me. “You kissed me like a woman possessed, freckles.”
I reluctantly stepped back and realised Damien had me cornered when my back pressed against something solid. The tool trolley.
“Damien,” I said, my voice sounded raspier than I would have liked. “We have to talk, remember?”
His eyes were on my lips. “I remember.”
“Then back off and stop lookin’ at me like I’m your prey.”
He flicked his eyes to mine. “Do you feel like you’re my prey?”
Hell yes.
“I do,” I said, lifting my chin.
“Are you scared I’m going to eat you?” he asked, dropping his voice to a seductive whisper.
I sucked in a breath. “Stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“Whatever it is that you’re doin’ ... I can’t think.”
Whenever he was close to me, all logical thought vanished.
“I make you nervous,” he said, and he sounded ... pleased.
“You drive me crazy,” I corrected. “You just kissed me.”
“I know.”
“Damien, you can’t just kiss me whenever you want.”
He got in my face. "Fucking watch me."
My limbs felt like jelly.
"Why did you kiss me?"
“I had to,” he said. “He kissed you last.”
Dante.
“No, he didn’t,” I said with a sigh. “Of all the things we did, kissin’ wasn’t one of them.”
Damien’s brow furrowed together as he took a step back.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothin’,” I answered. “I don’t want to talk about Dante.”
“He’s part of the talk, and you know it.”
I lifted my hands to my face and sighed.
“You have confused me even more than I already was,” I said, dropping my hands. “I thought you wanted to be friends?”
“Do friends kiss each other the way I just kissed you?”
I licked my lips, still tasting him.
“No,” I said softly.
“Then no, Alannah,” he growled, “I don’t want to be your friend.”
My heart pounded against my chest.
“I can’t offer you more than that.”
“Bullshit,” Damien clipped. “I felt the way you kissed me, and I see how you look at me. You want me; you’re just scared.”
“Just scared?” I repeated. “Damien, I’m fuckin’ terrified. Me only experience with you ended in disaster.”
He set his jaw. “I’m not the same person I was when I was eighteen.”
I lifted my chin. “Neither am I, and that is thanks to you.”
I turned and made for the exit, but Damien wasn’t having it. He grabbed my arm again, rounded on me, and placed his large, hard body between myself and the exit.
“No,” he quipped. “You’re done walking away from me when we’re talking.”
My mouth dropped open. “You’re givin’ me an order?”
“You bet your perfect ass I am.”
It was wrong to be so turned on by his show of dominance.
“I don’t take orders from you or any other man.”
“We’ll see,” he growled.
“We’ll see nothin’ because—”
“Because what?”
He was in my face again, but I couldn’t think.
“I don’t know!” I snapped. “I don’t know anythin’ when you’re this close to me.”
“And you say you can’t give me more?” he asked on a growl. “Your body knows who it belongs to; your brain just needs to catch up.”
That snapped me out of my haze.
“Me brain and body aren’t the ones callin’ the shots,” I quipped. “The heart that you broke is!”
Damien leaned back and looked down into my eyes.
“You know I’d give anything to change how I left things with you.” He placed his hands on my shoulders. “I know you know that.”
He had told me as much many times over the past year, but I always put it down to his guilty conscience.
“I don’t know what I know anymore,” I admitted, looking down. “Everythin’ is so messed up.”
Damien tipped my chin up until my gaze met his.
“We need to talk about everything. Just the two of us, babe.”
Babe.
I swallowed and nodded. “When?”