“Brody?” her soft voice asked, so many questions inside that one word, but I couldn’t give her answers I didn’t have.
“This is wrong,” I told her, my gruff voice filling the air between us as I turned so we were face-to-face. “I should walk out that door.” I stepped closer to her, my gaze flicking down to her chest as it lifted up and down rapidly. “But fuck, Lola, I can’t.”
I loosened my grip on her wrist and whispered the palm of my hand up her arm and to her shoulder. She tilted her head to the side, a small moan escaping her parted lips as my hand stopped on the side of her neck.
“I don’t want you to leave,” she whispered, her hand reaching out and clasping my forearm as if she could keep me in place with just that one touch.
“You have no idea what you’re gettin' into, darlin',” I warned, my other hand reaching out and grasping her waist. There were inches of space between us. One tense of my muscles and we’d be flush against each other.
Her other hand moved to my chest, stopping over my heart that was beating rapidly. “Take a leap into the unknown with me,” she said, her hooded eyes staying focused on me.
My body moved before my brain could catch up, and I pulled her closer, groaning as our bodies slammed together. “Tell me,” I growled. “Tell me what you want.”
She bit down on her bottom lip and lifted onto her tiptoes. “You.” Her swallow was audible. “I just want you.”
I’d never felt so out of control. I’d been on this earth for thirty-five years, and nothing and nobody had affected me the way those four words coming out of Lola’s mouth had.
How had this nineteen-year-old kid rendered me speechless?
How could something so wrong feel so right?
I let out a breath and moved my head closer to hers, staring into her eyes. She didn’t flinch, not one moment of doubt, and when I was only centimeters away from her full lips, I whispered, “If you don’t want this, then tell me now, because once I start, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop.”
“I want this,” she replied, her breath hitting my lips. “I want this so bad.”
I nodded, not sure whether to her or myself, and gripped her waist harder, pulling her closer to me, and pressing my lips against hers.
I was trying to keep control, trying to not take too much. The gentle caress of my lips against hers had me pressing my hips harder to hers. The tip of my tongue swiping against the seam of her lips had me spinning us around. And her mouth opening for me had me slamming her back against the kitchen wall.
The slow start became frenzied, all teeth and tongues. I was ravishing her, but she was ravishing me right back. She dipped her tongue into my mouth and trailed her hand over my chest and abs, lifting up my soaked T-shirt.
She pulled back and demanded, “Take it off,” and fuck if I didn’t do as she said. I’d have gotten down on my hands and knees and begged her just so I could have her lips and body pressed against mine again.
My bare chest hit her covered one as I bent down and wrapped my hands around her thighs. She knew exactly what to do and boosted herself up. Our lips fused together again, and I groaned. I thought I knew what it felt like to kiss someone you liked, loved even, but I had no idea. Nothing came close to this feeling, not past girlfriends, not—
Her hips rocking against me brought me out of my thoughts and had my hands gripping her waist harder. I slowed the kiss down, wanting to take my time, but that only spurred her on even more. I was starting to understand that she liked it hard and fast, but she craved it slow. I wanted to know more about her. I wanted to understand what made her tick, what made her moan, what made her happy, and what made her sad.
But I shouldn’t have wanted to know all that. I shouldn’t have been kissing her. I’d resisted the temptation, and now I’d given in, I didn’t think I could not come back and do it over and over again.
I pulled back and rested my forehead against hers. “Fuck.” I drew in a much-needed breath. My head spun, my body burning from her touch. “It wasn’t meant to be like that.”
“I know,” she whispered, placing a
gentle kiss on the edge of my lips. “I’ve never felt like that before.” She pressed another kiss to my jaw. “I never want to stop.” Her lips pressed against the scruff on my cheek, and she moaned. Her breath fluttered against my ear, and I bucked my hips against hers.
“Lola,” I groaned. “You’re messin' me up.”
“Good.” She scraped her teeth against my earlobe. “Because you have me tied up in knots that I can’t undo on my own.”
She pressed one last kiss to my jaw and drew back, her hooded eyes trying to focus on mine. Her hair was a halo of a mess, her lips swollen and red from our kisses, and her cheeks flushed. She’d never looked so goddamn hot.
“You’re fuckin' beautiful, you know that?” I ground out. “Too beautiful for someone like me.”
It was true. She didn’t know who I was. She knew where I came from, and my name, but that was all. She didn’t know I was here to bring her stepbrother down, and she didn’t know what waited for me back at home. She had no idea what she was letting herself in for. I was being a selfish asshole just so I could keep whatever it was between us.
Her small palm rested against my cheek, the only noise being the pads of her fingers rubbing back and forth over my scruff. “Don’t say that, Brody.” She flicked her gaze down between us and unhooked her legs from around my waist. I let her down slowly but didn’t move my hands off her. “Don’t ruin it, please.”
The pleading in her hazel eyes about broke me, and not for the first time, I wondered how much a nineteen-year-old could understand about the hardships of life, but that wasn’t who Lola was. I’d heard how hard her life was and had been. I’d witnessed how she tried to navigate Hut and his crew. And I had a feeling there was way more she hadn’t told anyone. She may have been nineteen, but age was just a number, and she’d had a hard life. A life I wanted to make better.