Lincoln nodded.
“Just what are you trying to say with that?” I demanded. “Is this some sort of insinuation that I’m a bad kisser? That I didn’t somehow kissyou properly, and only you can do it right?”
His eyes twinkled wickedly in the overhead light. “No to the first,” he rumbled. “A partial yes to the second.”
I questioned him without words, letting my eyebrows do the talking.
“You didn’t know what you were doing. It was a frantic response. I certainly didn’t think you were capable of doing something so … outlandish.”
Could he read my mind?
“Safe to say,” he continued, “we were all shocked. Me the most, but I’m more than okay with that, given the result.”
He winked at me, which did terribly good things to that spot below my waist, right between my legs. A spot I was trying desperately to ignore, to pretend didn’t exist at that moment. Thinking clearly would be easier. Unfortunately, it wasn’t so simple. Try as I might, the slow dull pulsing grew stronger by the second.
“Lincoln,” I said slowly, desperate to interject some semblance of control.
“Yes?” he drawled with lazy confidence, knowing full well he had me in his palm, no matter what I was going to say.
“Youare aware that the guy I just kicked out-“
He cleared his throat emphatically. I glared.
“The guyyou just kicked out,” I corrected to a nod, “was my ex-boyfriend. Right? The one that I broke up with on the day I found out my grandmother was dead, and her funeral was later that day? All of which happened just this week alone.”
Lincoln wasn’t fazed. I hadn’t held out much hope he would be, but I had to try.
“I wasn’t aware of the timeline. But I had heard it mentioned briefly in passing during his visit that you two had dated, yes.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s most definitely past tense.” Shaking my head, trying to refocus, I pushed on. “The point I’m trying to make is that I just exited a long-term relationship days ago, and in a most messy way. I’m not looking. I’m not ready.”
“You’re not ready,” Lincoln countered, “because you think it will be more of the same. That anything you get will be just as mediocre, and not great. You deserve greatness.”
I licked my lips, uncomfortable at his seriousness. “Um, thank you. I agree.”
“Good,” he said with a sharp, short nod. “Because that’s what I’m going to give you.”
“Huh?”
“Greatness. I am going to give you what you deserve. Every hour, of every day, I am going to show you why you deserve nothing but the absolute best. Then I’m going to make sure you get it. No matter what it takes. The things you aren’t even aware you deserve … I will give them to you. And I’m going to prove it, starting with a kiss.”
At some point during his little speech the bottom of my stomach fell out. “I’m, um, I’m not looking for anything,” I managed to force out in a tiny whisper, knowing full well I had to say it that way, and not that I wasn’t interested.
Because I was. I was beyond interested. I wanted. Badly.
Lincoln shook his head slowly, his mismatched eyes ablaze. “We both know you wouldn’t have kissed me like that if the idea wasn’t already in your head, Sylvie.”
He took a step forward.
The room shrank. My jaw quivered. I tried to retreat, to step back from him, but the floor was suddenly glue, pinning my feet in place despite the frantic calls coming from the one remaining part of my brain that worked. The intrigue promised in his words was too great.
“I’ve been thinking about kissing you,” he growled, taking another step forward and entering my personal space.
“
Oh
,” I whimpered. “Y-you have?”
He nodded slowly, never breaking eye contact. Blue and gold circles burned brightly, hypnotizing in their difference. “I’ve thought of kissing you many times. In many different ways. Each one would give you what you deserve. What you crave.”
My blood burned hotter with every word tumbling from his lips. The air in the room shimmered like a desert mirage.
“We’ve been down this path, Sylvie.”
A tiny exhale slipped from between parched lips. A crack in my defenses as he said my name, the sound pleasing to the ears. Pleasurable.
“You feel it.”
He was right in front of me now. Practically touching. Invading my space. Conquering it. The next step after that was reaping the rewards. Was I his reward?
“I feel it too,” he rumbled deep and gravelly, nearly caving my knees in with that admittance of his own wants. His own needs.
Me. I was what he wanted. What he desired.
“This is just the next natural step.” His hand came up to caress my jaw, tilting my head upward ever so slowly while he stopped my heart.
I fought against the shiver that sped down my spine when he brushed my cheek with the backs of his fingers. Tender. Gentle. Dominating. He was making me his without forcing a thing.
Now that was power.
“All I’m saying is I want a chance to show you how
Iwould do it.”
“You really know how to woo a girl,” I said in a rush, somehow finding a bit of a backbone that he hadn’t blown aside just yet. “Insulting her ability to kiss well just makes her want to do it again really bad. How did you know?”
Lincoln smiled widely, like a wolf about to devour its prey. “If you’re so upset and insulted by what I’m saying, blaming it all on the shock and anger, come on up here and show me how youreally kiss,” he taunted, pressing a finger to his lips.
It was my turn to laugh. “You can’t honestly believe I’m that gullible. Can you?”
“No. But it was worth a try, wasn’t it?”
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