Page 58 of Brutal

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“Then stop answering the wrong ones.”

That should irritate me. Instead it does something far less useful.

I lean in. Not too quickly. Deliberately enough to give her time to turn her face away.

She doesn’t.

Her breath catches once. She tightens her fingers around the pole.

Then I’m there.

My mouth on hers.

Her lips part under mine just enough to let violent heat flash through me.

I deepen the kiss a fraction.

Only a fraction.

Enough to feel her answer. Enough to know exactly how bad an idea this is. Enough to know I don’t want to stop. Not now. Not ever.

I force myself to pull back.

Abruptly.

I have to. Because I was about to scrape her tonsils with my tongue and I know she’d have let me.

Fuck…

I look into her eyes. They’re wide, but not with innocence and not with surprise.

They’re wide with need.

I finally let go of her arm. If I continue to touch her, I’ll…

Fuck.

The space between us is only a few inches now, but after that kiss it feels unstable. Charged. Wrong in a way I can’t afford.

The train doors open. “This is your stop,” I say.

She doesn’t move immediately.

Neither do I.

Then she steps around me and onto the platform. I follow her out before the doors can close.

She turns fast. “Are you going to keep doing this?”

“Doing what?”

“Following me.”

“Until you stop chasing this.”

Her laugh is soft and humorless. “That’s not going to happen.”

“I know.”

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