When her fingers found the button on my jeans, I was completely lost to her, but in a way I never, ever expected.
“You have no idea how badly I want this,” I told her, bringing the tips of my fingers down her chest and over her stomach. So beautiful. “I think I’ve actually dreamed about it. Crazy, huh?”
She lifted a small hand, running the pads of her fingers down my cheek. I turned into the touch, pressing a kiss against the palm of her hand, and then I found her mouth again. This kiss was different, more intense, and Kat—aw, God—Kat came alive. Hips rocking together, our bodies fitted so tightly there was a good chance I would slip into my true form and knock out the power in the entire state.
Our explorations grew. Her hands were everywhere, and I urged her with words and touches to go further. Her leg curled around my hips—sweet, baby Jesus—I was nearly undone.
With my name on her lips and with barely anything separating us, I felt the last of my control slipping. Whitish-red light radiated off of me, bathing Kat in the warm glow. There was nowhere that my hands didn’t explore, and the way her body arched into the slightest touch, I was awed and consumed. Kissing her and drawing her deep inside me, I never wanted this to end. She was perfect to me. She was mine,and I wanted her more than I wanted anything in my life.
But I stopped.
Everything that had happened flipped through my head like a photo album I wanted to burn. Both our emotions were all over the place. There had been death, discovery, and so much more. And we were rushing headfirst into not turning back.
I didn’t want our first time to be like this—to be because of what happened.
My God, I wasa mushy pansy ass, but I stopped.
Kat stared up at me, running her hands over my stomach and making it really hard to slam on the brakes. “What?” she asked.
“You…you’re not going to believe me.” Hell, I didn’t believe it. In a couple of seconds, I was really going to regret this. “But I want to do this right.”
She started to smile. “I doubt you could do this wrong.”
Ha. “Yeah, I’m not talking about that. That I will do perfectly, but I want to…” Break out the subscription to the Hallmark Channel and Lifetime Movie Network. “I want us to have what normal couples have.”
Kat looked like she was going to cry again. I’d probably be crying soon, but for a totally different reason.
I cupped her cheek, exhaling roughly. “And the last thing I want to do is stop, but I want to take you out—go on a date or something.” I sounded like an idiot. “I don’t want what we’re about to do to be overshadowed by everything else.”
I think I might have blushed. Damn me.
Calling on every ounce of self-control I had, I did the unthinkable and lifted off her, easing down on my side. I wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her close. I brushed my lips across her temple. “Okay?”
Kat tipped her head back, meeting my stare. Her throat worked on her next words. “I think I might love you.”
Air punched out of my lungs. I held her tight, and I knew right then I would burn down the whole universe for her if I had to. I would do anything to keep her safe. Kill. Heal. Die. Anything. Because she was my everything.
And I wanted to tell her so, but I didn’t want to tempt the universe. Bad things happened to the people I loved.
I kissed her cheek. “Told you.”
Kat stared at me.
I chuckled, and although it didn’t seem possible, I moved closer. “My bet—I won. I told you that you’d tell me you love me on New Year’s Day.”
Looping her arms around my neck, she shook my head. “No. You lost.”
I frowned. “How do you figure?”
“Look at the time.” She tipped her chin toward the clock on the wall. “It’s past midnight. It’s January second. You lost.”
For several moments I stared at the clock, wishing it into a black hole, but then my gaze found hers and I smiled—really smiled. “No. I didn’t lose. I still won.”
Keep reading for a sneak peek of Tara Fuller’s
Inbetween
“A captivating whirlwind of death, revenge, and true love.
I want a reaper of my own!!”- Jena from Shortie Says
Since the car crash that took her father’s life two years ago, Emma’s life has been a freaky—and unending—lesson in caution. Surviving “accidents” has taken priority over being a normal seventeen-year-old, so Emma spends her days taking pictures of life instead of living it. Falling in love with a boy was never part of the plan. Falling for a reaper who makes her chest ache and her head spin? Not an option.
It’s not easy being dead, especially for a reaper in love with a girl fate has put on his list not once, but twice. Finn’s fellow reapers give him hell about spending time with Emma, but Finn couldn’t let her die before, and he’s not about to let her die now. He willprotect the girl he loves from the evil he accidentally unleashed, even if it means sacrificing the only thing he has left. His soul.
Prologue
Finn
Two Years Earlier
“Tell me again. How did you miss the mark?” I shoved my hands in my pockets and pressed my lips together to keep from grinning. “I swear, Anaya, this is the last time I follow one of you Heaven reapers anywhere.”
Anaya and I walked down a two-lane strip of asphalt that glistened with puddles of leftover rain. Somewhere in the distance, a second round of clouds let out a hungry rumble. Anaya silently kept pace beside me, the gold band around her biceps glinting with each feather-soft footstep.
She turned her nose up into the air. “I never miss a mark.”
“Then would you mind explaining why I’m walking up a mountain to get to our reap? We could’ve just flashed there.”
She squinted at her surroundings, hesitating. I knew we were close, but it was way too fun messing with her to let this one go. “It’s okay to admit you’re losing your touch,” I said. “I’d be happy to take the lead on this one.”
Anaya held up her hand, ignoring me. “Do you hear that?”
I stopped, listening to the mangled wail of a horn in the distance. As if pulled in by the sound, a black blur, like a cloud of ink, whipped past us before disappearing around the bend.
Shadows. Scavengers from the outskirts of Hell. Souls that weren’t chosen to start again, had escaped their reaper, or hadn’t earned their way into Heaven, so they’d been left to decay and rot. They were soulless beings that craved the scent of death. The taste of a soul.
I hated them. But I hated the memories they brought back even more.
Every shadow that blurred across my vision was a cold reminder of Allison, the love of my afterlife. What I’d done to her. What I’d almost let her become. Her name tumbling around in my skull made my chest ache.
But I couldn’t change it. I’d never be able to change it. I’d pushed her into a world where we’d never be together again and nearly gotten myself banished to Hell in the process. The shadows would never let me forget it. After fifteen years of penance, Balthazar wasn’t likely to let me forget it either. A sick feeling started to brew in my gut, so I shook it off and watched another black blur zip past us. At least they always led us to our targets.
“See.” Anaya smiled and skipped ahead. “We’re here.”
Sure enough, around the last bend, a candy-apple-red Camaro lay upside down, crumpled like a discarded Coke can at the tree line. The horn blared, the sound careering off the rock wall and slamming back into the cliffside forest where it splintered into a thousand echoes between the branches. If I had to guess, the car had taken a similar journey. A ringlet of white smoke seeped from under the ruined hood and twirled up into the air.