Page 188 of A Taste of Vanilla

My hand flexes.

“I want you to kiss me,” she says.

I don’t hesitate.

My control fractures cleanly down the center.

I put one hand on her jaw and kiss her. It’s not like the first time. Not like the other night. Not like the alley.

The first time was heat and grief and permission. The other night was anger.

I start with a slow, deep kiss until Halston confirms that she has other ideas.

Gripping the front of my shirt, she pulls, and the kiss turns hard and desperate. Her mouth hums against mine with relief. Like she’s been holding a moan in her body for days and finally found somewhere to put it.

My hand slides from her jaw into her hair, and her fingers dig into my shirt as she pulls me against her.

I walk her back until her hips meet the counter, and she gasps into my mouth.

Her hands immediately slip under my shirt, her palms hot against my skin, nails dragging lightly up my ribs.

I go rigid, and her mouth curves against mine. “You like that.”

She does it again, and I can’t help the moan that escapes me.

I catch her wrist and pin it gently against my stomach, and her eyes lift.

“Are you sure?” I search her eyes.

She nods, her eyes dark and her lips already puffy.

I kiss her again, but this time, I bend into her. Both of my hands are on the counter behind her, caging her against it. Her body arches toward mine, her hands immediately tangling in my hair, pulling the tie loose until it falls somewhere on the floor. My hair slips free around my face, and she makes a low, satisfied sound that goes directly to my cock.

“I want to know what you’re like when you stop being so careful,” she says, her voice soft. “I want the Warren under all of this.”

Her fingers slide down my chest, over the buttons of my shirt, one by one.

“Under the lists.”

She undoes a button.

“The restraint.”

Another.

She looks up at me, her eyes clouded. “The scary bread voice.”

I smirk, and before she can yell at me, I take her chin between my thumb and forefinger and tilt her face up.

“There it is,” she whispers, her eyes searching mine.

My control slips another inch.

I kiss the side of her neck. Just once, and then again. I let my teeth scrape lightly over her pulse, loving the feeling of her shivering beneath me.

I pause. “Still yes?”

“Yes.”