Undercover Badge; Next Generation

Chapter twenty seven

CHAPTER 27

     The kiss lasted for an infinite moment. The angle I was stretching my neck at sort of ached and my elbows, even though the wool blanket, hurt pressed against the car's metal, and I felt like I was stretching too far, and, and, and...

I'd tilted my skull slightly left so my nose brushed his for half a second, and my eyes weren't completely closed- I couldn't resist glancing at his lips. And then, when I felt him against me, I closed my eyes and could feel my eyelashes brush his cheek. And then I tilted my jaw slightly up and my head back and I pressed my lips into his.

Reading books and watching movies didn't prepare me for how a kiss felt. It was purely physical- though saying that didn't sound right, didn't portray what I meant. They were the wrong words, it made it feel impersonal. What I meant was the connection was flesh to flesh, strangely muted. There wasn't music playing in the background or anyone looking. It was literally the meeting of two bodies at the lips. And it was solid, warm and present, and physical. Because it was his skin, his lips that physically met mine. It's this somehow primal awareness of his flesh and blood and life shared with me in a kiss.

He tasted like warmth and I didn't notice when all my weight was transferred to my left elbow, my other hand coming up to rest on the back of his neck, some of my fingertips in his hair, my palm on his jacket and a sliver of his warm skin igniting the senses in my hand beneath my gloves. I pulled a fraction of an inch away, my eyes closed still and savouring the moment that we'd kissed. And in that space he wasn't Matthew Dyllan Cavalier. Because the town and the people and my family and his weren't involved here. Here we were just Matthew and Katherine, kissing.

We stayed there for a moment, my elbow protesting but me ignoring it for this long moment after the simplest kiss. Then Matthew slowly peeled himself away, his hand covering mine on his neck as he sat back. I thought he'd drop it to let me sit back too, but he didn't, and he used that arm to pull me into sitting position, then quietly urging me to turn around and rest my back against his chest between his legs. He pulled over the pillow I'd been using, put it behind his back against the edge of the truck and half shouldered his way back. His one arm caught me around the waist, and his chest was big enough to let me turn my head and rest it under his chin. He handed me back my glasses and I cleaned them on my shirt before replacing them on my nose.

He smelled like Matthew usually did; cool lavender and mint and sea spray, now muskier by the smell of wood smoke clinging to his skin and clothes lightly, adding to the spice of him.

"Kat and James met a lot like we did. He wanted protect her from someone trying to hurt her, and she was stubborn and beautiful and strong willed." He squeezed my waist.

"Kat's mother lead up a gang. James and my father were undercover at the time to try infiltrate her operations and bring them down. Kat was a street fighter and a dancer, and she and James just... clicked. They broke the gang down, but Kat sort of lost her way, and they lost each other for a while. Kat liked working outside the law, sort of, and she started working for black ops. James was FBI at the time, and she met up with him again. They lost each other a second time, and a few years later, James tracked her ass down. They've been together ever since. Really, you coming into the picture was when everything settled and they all started working together, my mom and father too. They all worked together for years, and then they just... lost contact. After the fire... everyone went their separate ways."

"Black ops?" I asked. "Like... like spies?"

I loved the way I could feel his words begin in his chest, feel his chest expand and deflate behind me as he breathed in and out, the way breathing in brought another taste of him with his smell, like a bonfire on the beach.