Chapter 21: Chapter Twenty-One

She sat down next to me and leaned her head on my shoulder. “Did you have fun?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Thanks for letting me crash your party. I should’ve called first.”

“You never need to call. I always want to see you.”

“Thanks.” I looked at the front window, trying to hide my blush. “I’m not on Elena’s Christmas card list.”

She leaned over and kissed my shoulder. “She worries. She’s seen all my heartbreaks and it takes her awhile to warm up to people.” She trailed fingertips down the still pink surgery scars. “These from the accident?”

I had forgotten they were on display. While the raised curves were numb, the skin around them was extra sensitive. At least, when Carma touched them.

Stand up. Walk out of this house. You’re going to lose everything.

“Yeah. Surgery.”

She leaned closer, her breath caressing my skin. Then, like a butterfly, her lips fluttered against my shoulder. I stilled, my breath disappearing. My heartbeat was the loudest thing in the room.

I needed her.

A second flutter. My stomach flipped, twisted, fell to the center of the earth. I closed my eyes, all of my attention focused on two square inches of my body.

A third flutter. This time her lips parted, leaving the dampness from a kiss behind. I was melting.

A fourth. Her tongue touched my skin and I gasped. Her hand came to my hip and she scooted closer, her breasts pressing through her tank and against my back.

“Carma,” I whispered, the sound nearly inaudible.

Her response wasn’t a flutter, but a gentle nip, soothed with the press of her tongue. Her hand moved from my hip to my stomach, the shape of her palm burning me. Branding me.

My head bowed, and I leaned against her.

She sucked on the skin between my neck and shoulder, and a tremor shot through me. Oh god, I needed her to touch me. I needed to touch her.

I reached up and placed my hand at the back of her neck, my fingers tangling in her hair. She shifted so her legs were on either side of my hips and nipped my earlobe. I tugged teasingly at her hair and she purred.

I almost came from the sound alone. I ached with arousal. She was the sexiest woman—human—I’d ever met, and she wanted me.

Her kisses grew hotter, wetter as she brushed the straps of the tank down my shoulders and down my arms, exposing my breasts to the setting sun leaving shadows on the wall. Her fingers trailed down my spine, her lips following. I was shaking by the time she returned to the nape of my neck.

I needed her like I needed oxygen. Maybe more.

“Mina.” Her whisper sank straight through my skin, wrapping around my heart. I leaned my head back against her collarbone. Her lips were bright pink, parted with desire.

Her blazing green eyes searched mine as she ran her fingertips over my jawline, my cheekbone, my eyebrows. My eyes closed when her head rested against mine, her hot breath gliding over my skin. I was hyper aware of every inch where our bodies touched.

Her hands smoothed over my shoulders and just under my collarbone. My diaphragm tensed at the sensation and I inhaled sharply. She was so close to setting me on fire, smoke was filling the air around us.

I turned to face her, needing her lips on mine. The tip of her nose touched the side of mine. I dug both of my hands into the back of her hair, the scent of strawberries surrounding us like a protective bubble. The weight of her hair, the smoothness of her skin, the heat of her body. Her tongue darted out to lick her bottom lip, and this time I did groan.

My hands came to her cheeks, thumbs on either side of her mouth. I ran the pad of my thumb over her bottom lip and smiled when her breath hitched. “This is where I remind you that you wanted to go slow,” I whispered, hating myself. If I didn’t have her right now, I would literally die. I’d become a ghost and haunt her out of desperation.

“This is where I tell you I don’t care,” she retorted.

“Are you sure?”

“Mina, do you know what you do to me?” She shifted so our bodies were more entwined, her legs unfolding and moving over mine. She reached up and cupped my breast and I arched into her. “I need to taste you more than I need to breathe.”

I couldn’t wait another second. Lifting my head, I brought my lips to hers. How did every kiss feel like the first one?

My world splintered from the pressure of her mouth. This kiss was somehow both delicate and fierce. I shifted away then captured her bottom lip between mine.

She let out a soft cry before her free hand moved to the back of my head and pressed me deeper into her. Her mouth covered mine, her tongue gently prodding me to open wider. Every muscle in my body coiled tighter as we desperately sought friction.

“We need to move away from the window,” she breathed as she broke away and kissed down my body. She licked my nipple before pulling it into her mouth and gently nipping.

I gasped and arched toward her as electric shock shot straight through my body. “Literally don’t care.” I let her pull me down to the thick rug on the floor. She moved to my other breast, sucking the globe into her mouth and tonguing my nipple. I arched into her mouth, holding my breath as sparks lit a fuse to the center of my body.

And then my cell rang. “Ignore it.”

She didn’t let up. Her hand moved beneath my shorts. Fireworks went off behind my eyes.

The sound came again, the annoying ring of a cell. I growled.

“Do you need to get that?” she panted.

“Let the earth explode. It’s fine.” Then it rang a third time, then a fourth.

When it started the fifth time, Carma lifted her head away from my body and I nearly cried. “Answer it. It sounds like an emergency.”

I was going to murder whoever was on the other end of the line. “What?” I barked, not bothering with caller ID.

“Where the hell are you?” Jake bit out.

“Out.”

“No shit. I’m three minutes out from your place.”

I sat up. “Why? What happened?”

“The Andrews have company. Sebastian sent Reggie to find us.”

The expletive I groaned was five syllables long. “I don’t have my car.”

“I’ll drive you,” Carma whispered.

By Jake’s pause, I knew he heard it. “Do you have Sydney?”

“No.”

“I’ll get her. Get here.” He hung up.

I turned to Carma, who was pulling on her clothes. “I’m so sorry. There’s an emergency with my neighbors, and I’m the one who looks after them.”

She tossed me the tank, then darted into the hallway to swipe her keys out of the bowl. “Let’s motor.”

We were out the door before I had a chance to panic about her potentially seeing something I couldn’t cover up.