Periwinkle

31| THE FINE SPECIMEN

Shane fucking Carver was kissing me.

I let out a small, involuntary gasp the moment his lips settled on me.

His soft and warm lips, a touch warmer than I expected.

After that gasp, though, I didn't dare move.

I didn't dare fucking move.

Because Shane fucking Carver had his lips on mine.

Actually, I didn't know if I could even move. Because it felt like my brain was short-circuiting. My eyes were wide open, but they couldn't take in any details because I was too overwhelmed. All I could see was a blur of colors, a hazy image of the water, the moon, the stars, and his face.

But even as my brain was still trying to process just what the fuck was happening, it also knew that if I moved, this could be over. Shane was... unpredictable. I didn't know if he was even aware of what he was doing, but I didn't want to do anything that would stop this.

Because fuck my life, it was just a press of lips against lips, but I didn't want this to stop. There was no tongue, no teeth, nothing. Yet...

I never thought a kiss as simple as this could make me burn the way it did or could make me feel all the way down to my bones like this.

I wanted to reach up, tangle my fingers through his wet strands that I've been basically dying to touch, pull him as close to me as possible, and just kiss the fuck out of him.

But I didn't dare move.

It didn't matter how badly I wanted to, how my body was screaming for more, how much it ached to have his hands on me again, or how my skin burned at the slightest brush of his.

I couldn't, and I shouldn't.

It took every ounce of self-control not to reach for him, not to give in to the overwhelming desire. But, somehow, I managed to keep myself still. I closed my eyes, letting myself drown in the sensations, and breathed in his scent.

God, it felt like heaven and hell at the same time.

It was everything and nothing all at once.

I felt so light and so heavy at the same time. I couldn't explain it, and I couldn't begin to describe what the fuck was happening inside me right now.

It was confusing and thrilling, and my heart was about to fucking explode.

I never wanted this to end, but I also wanted more.

I was so lost in my thoughts, so lost in the sensations, that when he began to pull away, I almost whimpered at the loss of his lips. Instead, I blinked my eyes open and watched him with wide eyes. The light of the moon caught on the rim of his iris as he looked down at me, igniting a ring of amber around the deep emerald.

I didn't dare speak, didn't dare move, didn't dare breathe.

"Fuck," he muttered.

It was a single word, barely audible, but the sound of it snapped me out of my trance. I opened my mouth, ready to respond, but before I could get any words out, he was gripping the side of my face with one hand, the other was going around my waist, and he was pulling me closer again, with no hesitation in his movements this time.

In that moment, a sudden flash of clarity hit me, and I wrapped my arms around his neck as the water sloshed around us, the coldness the last thing on my mind.

His mouth pressed on mine more firmly this time, hard and demanding, prying my lips open. His tongue slipped inside, claiming my mouth, making me moan softly. The taste of him was intoxicating—a heady cocktail of desire and danger. And the way he kissed me—the way he flicked his tongue against mine—had my toes curling and heat pooling between my legs.