Tainted Kiss (Tainted Knights 1)

I swallowed hard and quickly finished up. I needed to get away from the guy as fast as possible. He was messing with my head … and other more impulsive regions of my body.

Lowering my camera without looking at the last shot I had just taken—I knew it was going to be perfect, anyway—I gave Kale a tight smile. “Well, that’s it. Thanks for being so cooperative. Some of your bandmates weren’t nearly as accommodating as you were.”

“Have lunch with me.”

I had started to turn away, to go back to the table where all my equipment was waiting on me so I could get the hell out of there, but his command stopped me.

No “please.” No “are you free?” Just a straight forth “have lunch with me.”

Any other time, I might have laughed and just walked away. Or told the guy to go fuck himself.

I didn’t do either.

I just stopped and looked up at him.

At first glance, he looked confident, smug even. After only a few seconds, though, I saw that he was actually nervous. His eyes were slightly dilated, his hands stuffed into his pockets, and his shoulders were tense. It was cute.

Even as I was mentally calling myself every possible kind of idiot there was, I found myself nodding.

“Okay.”

I stopped when I heard my voice. It was low and husky; not so much weak, but full of all the things that I wanted to keep to myself.

When his eyes crinkled at the corners, need flaring in those hazel depths, I bit down hard on the inside of my bottom lip and quickly turned away to put my camera and equipment away.

Maybe I shouldn’t go with him. I should make up an excuse and get as far away from this guy as possible while I still could … while I still had the damn brain cells to know it was dangerous to let myself get close to him.

I zipped up my case that now housed my camera and lifted it off the table. Then, as I turned, ready to tell Kale I couldn’t do lunch, I stepped right into him.

One of his hands touched my side then slid around to my back. This close, I could smell his body wash, and it tried to hypnotize me.

“Ready?” he asked in a voice that was barely above a whisper but was full of so many things I nearly melted against him. I could drown in just the sound of his voice.

I had barely given him a nod before he was taking my case with his free hand and guiding me out of the room. He didn’t call a good-bye to Travis, and I had almost forgotten about him until I heard him behind us on our way out to the elevators.

“We need to go over the schedule for next week,” Travis told Kale as we waited for the elevator. “I’ll have everything ready by tomorrow. Tell the others we’ll meet around two to discuss it.”

Kale lifted his chin in acknowledgement. “I’ll tell Gray.”

When the elevator arrived, I wasn’t sure if I was disappointed or relieved that there were a few other people already inside. Regardless, I took it as a chance to put a little distance between us.

I stepped inside the metal box, but without Kale’s body brushing against mine, his heat flooding into me, I felt oddly chilled. Then he stepped in beside me and, after pressing the lobby button, his hand returned to the small of my back.

“What’s your favorite food?” His voice caressed over my ear, making me shiver.

It wasn’t food I was hungry for right then. It was actually the last thing on my mind as I felt his nose brush across my earlobe.

Holy shit, I was in serious trouble with this guy.

“Umm … There’s this really good Thai place about two blocks down. My roommate loves it, and I normally pick her up some when I’m in the area.”

“That’s not what I asked, Santana.” The elevator door opened again on the ground floor, but he didn’t move. “What’s your favorite food?”

“Barbeque chicken flat bread,” I found myself telling him honestly. “But I only like it when I make it. I have this OCD thing about chicken. I can’t eat it unless I cook it myself.”

Something like surprise flashed across his face. The heat didn’t leave it, but a new interest seemed to fill his eyes. It made me wonder if he was really just after a quick fuck or if he actually liked me.

“You can cook?” He stepped back just enough so that my every breath wasn’t full of his fresh, citrusy scent.