Flutter (The Discover Series) (58 page)

             
“Adan? Are you okay?” I asked, touching his arm.

             
He looked at me and grinned. “Gotcha.” He said, laughing.

             
“Ugh!” I scowled at him, hitting him in the arm. He didn’t even bat an eye at the blow.

             
I moved to get up, but he caught my wrist pulling me against him, falling back so I was leaning over him. My hair fell forward teasing the side of his face, creating a dark curtain around us.

             
“It was to easy spitfire.” His arm tightened around my waist,
bringing
me closer to him.

             
“You’re a punk.” I told him, trying not to be swayed by irresistible gleam in his eyes

             
“The absolute worst.” He agreed. His dimple deepened under the shift of his grin. “All teasing aside, I find a flaw in your theory.”

             
“What’s that?” I tried hard to pay attention to his answer, but I was being tempted in another direction.

             
“You’re saying my attraction to you is an illusion. A trick of the mind because of an effect, and that’s not true. I want
you
. I find you fascinating because of everything that you are, not because of what you look like.”

             
His words were poetry to my ears and the ? to the last of my restraint. Leaning forward, my lips found the dip of his dimple and my tongue slipped out, teasing the mark. I heard his breath catch and the low growl emanating from his chest and smiled, becoming braver. My lips found the strong line of his jaw, and my teeth nipped at the edges until I found his chin. Moving along the curve of his neck, my mouth wreaked havoc on the sensitive skin. Biting and tasting until he couldn’t stand it anymore.

He tangled his fingers into my hair, bringing my mouth back to his, whispering hotly against my lips.

“What are you doing to me?” he growled.

“Consuming you. Like a slow fire burning.”

Flutter

Twenty

Darkness

“I had a really good time today Adan.”

             
We rounded the side of my house moving
toward
my room so I didn’t have to go through the front door. We were instantly cloaked in darkness and our walking slowed to a snail’s pace.

“Only a
good
time?” he teased, bumping me with his shoulder.

             
“No, I mean it. It was really…amazing.” I clasped my hands together.

             
“So I’ve moved up to amazing status, huh? That was fast.” He teased.

             
“Isn’t that what you were fishing for?”

             
“I would have settled for spectacular, life changing,
magical.
” He counted the list off on his fingers.

             
“What? No option for ‘all of the above’? How modest of you.” I retorted.

             
Were we even still walking?
I thought.

             
He laughed. “I’m glad it was amazing.”

             
“And for you?” I inquired curiously.

             
“Now who’s fishing?”

             
“Just shows I’ve been spending way too much time with you. You’re starting to rub off on me.”

             
He tried to contain his laugh, but looking over at him I could see the mischievous gleam in his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but the innuendo died on his lips.

             
“For me,” he said, stopping to look at me, “all of the above Sara.”

             
The amount of smolder that oozed from his words made my knees weak and I was transfixed by the intensity of his stare.

             
“You make it hard to breathe when you look at me like that.”

             
He made a sound resembling a growl. “Me?! You haven’t the faintest idea what you do to me Sara. The amount of control you have over me is scary.”

             
He tucked a piece of hair that framed my face behind my ear, before trailing his fingers down the side of my neck, and pulling me up against him until there was a seamless line between us. He pressed his forehead against mine, our eyes never leaving one another’s.

             
“You have no idea how badly I’ve had the urge to kiss you again, and again, and again.” He voice lowered to a whisper.

             
His eyes dropped to my lips and I nervously chewed on my bottom lip in anticipation. He hadn’t been the only one craving a repeat of our earlier kiss.

             
“What’s stopping you?” I whispered.

             
He groaned. “I know you’re worried about how fast we go. I didn’t want to push you to do anything more.”

             
“How noble of you,” I teased.

             
His laugh was throaty and I felt his fingers curve around my hip trying to pull me closer.

             
“Believe me it’s not by choice.”

             
“So you’ve just been waiting on me?”

             
“Yes. I wanted to give you time to adjust. How’s that going by the way?”

             
“I think I’ve adjusted.” I answered honestly.

             
“Are you sure? There is-”

             
“Adan.” I cut him off.

             
“Yeah?”

             
I pushed up on my tip toes, his lips, a breath away, hovered over mine and I whispered. “Shut up and kiss me.”

             
It was more than a meeting of the mouths as our lips crushed and twisted together. Tilting his head, he deepened the kiss, his lips persuading mine to open with little effort.  His tongue slipped passed my lips to explore the softness of my mouth, teasing the curve of my tongue, and ravishing the inside of my mouth. I knew nothing in my life would ever feel as right as it did when I was kissing Adan.

             
The kiss went from an intensity of zero to one hundred and eighty within seconds of our lips touching. His thumb stroked my neck, drawing lazy circles over the spot where my pulse was pounding wildly, before his fingers tangled themselves in the strands of my hair. His hand knotted in a fist and he gently tugged on my hair, exposing my neck to his waiting lips.

             
A whimper escaped my mouth when he lifted his head, breaking the kiss. His lips were at my ear now and I could feel the smile that clung to his lips at my protest.

             
“Don’t worry, I’m not going far.” He reassured me.

             
His lips reeked havoc as they flirted with the arch of my neck, leaving warm, breathy, kisses across my neck. His tongue twisted over the same spot his thumb had been earlier and he made a pleased sound as he nibbled where my pulse trembled. He couldn’t seem to control his lips and tongue as they kissed and tasted every bit of exposed flesh.

             
Gripping his elbows, I tried to steady the slight sway of my body. He was leaving me breathless and before I could catch my breath his mouth found mine again, my head spinning from the sensation. Slipping his arm around my waist, he pulled me tighter against him for added support. He had meant to help, but as I felt the strong muscles of his body against mine, something that had been building inside of me exploded and I was attacked by a million fluttery sensations.

Sparks
exploded and sizzled out of control, making my skin sensitive to the touch. I could feel the ribbons of electricity flowing untamed around us. The static charge was building; the air surrounding us was crackling under the pressure. The heat was building, threatening to explode with each twist of his lips, every dip of his tongue. I knew I should be worried, or at the very least cautious, but I couldn’t process anything other than Adan.

             
He pulled away then, pressing his lips to my forehead, both of us concentrating on breathing again. I wanted to ask him if he had been able to feel the threat of eruption surfacing. He blew out warm puffs of air against my already heated skin and I shivered in response.

             
“Wow,” he finally said, “you are extremely good at that.”

             
My whole body flushed even hotter at his words and I buried my flaming face into the curve of his neck as his chest vibrated with laughter.

             
“After a kiss like that, I should be the one blushing.”

             
I mumbled into his neck and hit his shoulder lightly, making him laugh out loud. Wrapping his arms around my waist, he lifted me off of the ground, swaying back and forth with me. When he set me down, he pulled back and kissed me softly, and swiftly, on the lips.

             
“If I don’t get you inside within the next five minutes, that might be our last kiss for a while, and I don’t think I could survive that.”

             
“A fate worse than death.”

             
He smiled. “Pretty damn close.”

             
We took a few steps
toward
the corner of the house, Adan following behind me. Turning suddenly, I touched his chest, stopping him from following me further.

             
“What wrong?” He asked.

             
I tried to answer his question, but all I could think about is the way the hard muscles of his chest felt under my hand, the steady pounding of his heart against my fingertips teasing me. My eyes flickered up to his when the rhythmic beat of his heart began to speed up.

             
“It’s probably better if you stay here, just in case there is a stakeout being staged in my room right now.”

             
“An ambush?”

             
“I wouldn’t put it past Andres. He didn’t seem too excited for me to be going with you today. I don’t know why though.”

             
“Easy. I ooze that bad boy charm.”

             
“You think so?”

             
“What? You don’t?” He spread his arms wide.

I pressed my lips together, biting the inside of my bottom lip. I thumped the side of my mouth with my finger and gave him a once over. I cocked my head to the side, pretending to think some more.

“Eh.”

“EH?! What does ‘
EH’
mean?!” He exclaimed loudly.

I laughed at his outburst and shushed him. “You’ve got a 50/50 chance of being a bad boy.”

“That’s all? Those are my odds?.”

“Take it or leave it.”

I turned around; attempting to walk away, his hand shot out, grabbing my arm, and pulled me back, trapping me against him and the wall.

A thrill of excitement shot through my body, leaving me dizzy, as he gazed down into my face.

“Not sure I agree with those odds spitfire.” Adan said.

“I don’t think you have a choice.”

“I’d say 90/10.” He argued.

I shook my head. “You can’t come up with your own odds.”

“Said no one ever.”

             
“It’s cheating, actually.”

             
“Where are you getting these rules from?”

             
“They’re common rules Adan.”

             
“Unless they are documented somewhere, with some powerful guy’s signature, I’m going to have to call BS on that. I am model material for bad boys across the world.”

             
His hands encircled my elbows, caressing the soft skin underneath the edge of my half sleeves, and I fought to pay attention to our playful banter.

             
“That’s quite a range of supporters.”

             
He shrugged. “Someone’s got to do it.”

             
“I guess I had you all wrong. So, is there some kind of bad boy club? Secret hands shake, buttons-”

             
“Sara.”

             
“Yeah?”

             
“Shut up and kiss me.”

             
He bent over to kiss me, but something stopped him just inches from my face.  His face pulled together in confusion.

             
“What’s wrong?” I asked, but I realized too late what had stolen his attention.  I tried to pull away from him, but he held on fast.

             
“What is that?” He asked, his eyes drilling into mine.

             
My reaction caused him to be on alert, fighting against my restraint; he tried to bring my arm up into the light.

             
I had been so distracted by Adan that I hadn’t paid attention to his wandering fingers, or the sensation his thumb was causing as he brushed against
it
. He had felt the raised edges of the imprint around my elbow and the look in his eyes told me there was nothing I could do that would distract him from that.

             
“Adan let go.” I said, still trying to pull away from him.

             
“No.” He said stubbornly. “What is that Sara?” He asked again.

             
He pulled me from the shadows that were cast by the house, into the light from the back porch. Turning my arm out while holding it in place, he used his free hand to pull back the sleeve of my shirt, revealing the dark handprint. His eyes widened and his breathing increased as he took in the shocking image. The mark was getting worse as the black lines twisted up and away from the print.

             
His eyes shot to me, but he didn’t say anything.

What was there to say?
I thought.

He tentatively touched my damaged skin, the sensation of it making my skin crawl, and I sucked in a ragged breath, making a hissing sound as I tried to pull my arm from his tight grip again.

“Don’t touch it.” I said.

“Does it hurt?” He looked at me, concern distorting his face.

“No, but it doesn’t feel good either.”

“What happened to you? What is this Sara?” I could tell his level of control was diminishing by the second.

Of course he’s freaked out!
My mind screamed.
Look at your arm!