“One little kiss won’t ruin anythin’, snowflake.”
“One of your kisses ruined me a long time ago, freckles.”
When I opened my eyes, and smiled at Damien, his breath caught, and that was the only warning I got before he covered his mouth with mine. My hands, as I knew they would, slid straight up to Damien’s hair, and my fingers tangled around the thick strands. I parted my lips, and when his tongue slid against mine, a pulse began to throb between my thighs.
Instantly, I broke the kiss.
“Trouble,” I rasped. “Stop. We’ll get in trouble.”
Damien tensed, but he didn’t attempt to kiss me again, though I knew he wanted to. I could almost feel how much he wanted to.
“Do you want me to go?” he asked, his eyes still on my lips.
I shook my head. “No, I don’t.”
“You don’t want me to leave at all?”
“No,” I answered shyly.
“You’re trying to kill me.” Damien groaned. “I know you are.”
“I promise to be good.”
He grunted.
“I’ll be good,” I continued. “I won’t tease.”
“You’ll be a good girlfriend?”
My stomach flip flopped at the mention of the word.
“Am I your girlfriend?”
“Yes,” Damien answered instantly. “I don’t want to play games. We’ll be dating and dating only each other. What’s the point in not being the other’s partner when we know that’s what we’ll be to each other? I’m not doing that no label bullshit. I’ve seen some of my brothers go down that route, and it was pointless for them. I know who I want, and that is you.”
My stomach erupted with butterflies.
“No games?” I repeated.
Damien nodded. “No games.”
“We’ll have to communicate,” I urged. “We lacked severely in that department before, so it has to be a priority if we’re goin’ to really be doin’ this.”
“We are doing this,” Damien said, licking his lips. “You’re my girlfriend.”
The schoolgirl in me wanted to scream, “I’m Damien Slater’s girlfriend!”, and for once, the woman in me was on the same wavelength.
“I’ll be the best girlfriend,” I assured Damien. “I promise.”
He smiled, leaned in, and brushed his lips gently against mine.
“I can’t fucking believe you’re my girlfriend.”
Neither could I … my friends were going to die.
I shot upright when I heard a loud bang, followed by a string of curse words. I jumped out of my bed, thankfully my bed sheets didn’t wrap around me like a boa constrictor and bring me to my knees. I ran out of my room and came to a skidding stop in the hallway outside of the kitchen. I winced at the brightness of the light and lifted my hand to block it. With my eyes squinted, my vision cleared, and Damien came into view.
A half-naked Damien.
“Fuck.”
Damien jumped and spun to face me.
“You scared the shit out of me,” he said, placing a hand on his ridiculously toned chest in surprise.
My eyes roamed over his body, and my mind began to tick things off one by one.
Nice tan? Check.
Killer abs? Check.
Drool worthy V line? Check.
Treasure trail? Check.
Wearing nothing but black boxer briefs? Check.
“Alannah,” Damien said, his voice gruff.
I flicked my eyes up to him. “How do you maintain a tan? People get lighter ’ere, not darker.”
Damien looked down at his body, then back up at me.
“I’m lighter than I was a year ago.”
“Doesn’t look like it to me.”
When he didn’t reply, I looked up at him and froze when I saw how he was looking at me.
“Stop looking at me like you want to eat me,” he said, his jaw tensed. “I’m only a man, and I’m going to try to touch you if you don’t stop.”
I wasn’t sure if I could adhere to his request, so I lifted my hand and covered my eyes completely. “Done.”
When Damien’s low laughter filled the room, I felt the sudden sexual tension slip away so I smiled and dropped my hand back to my side.
“I didn’t mean to wake you,” he said, a slight frown on his face. “The cat was crying, so I came to check on her and I walked into the table when I came in here.”
I gasped. “Barbara!”
Before I could turn and run into the sitting room, Damien’s voice stopped me.
“She’s in her crate; she’s fine.”
Before we both went to bed—in separate rooms—we set up everything Alec had bought on my behalf for Barbara. There were toys, food, bowls for food and water, litter trays in different sizes for when she grows, a scratching post that took surprisingly forever to put together, a packet of catnip, and a little fur brush. I was confident I’d need to get more supplies for her, but for the moment, it seemed I had everything to sate her needs.
“Did she eat any food?”
Damien nodded. “There is a small dent in what we gave her.”
I gnawed on my lower lip, and worried.
“I hope she isn’t too young for the kitten food.”