“What are you thinking about?”

“How do you know I’m thinking?” I turned my head the tiniest amount so I could meet his eyes.

“You’ve been sitting there with your lips on the glass, staring into the abyss, for a few minutes now.”

Right. Of course I had.

“Nothing in particular,” I lied, finally taking a drink and putting the glass down. “Pondering why the aliens don’t want to be our friends.”

“Well, I would imagine we’re not quite intelligent enough, our technology is far inferior to theirs, and we’re barefaced liars.”

“Am I that transparent?”

“The aliens wouldn’t need to use their technology to see right through you.”

I pouted, frowning at him. “There’s no need to be so mean about it.”

His lips tugged up. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to.” He sipped from his wine and set the glass next to mine. “You wanna know what I’m thinking?”

“You’re going to tell me regardless, aren’t you?”

“I wanted to give you a chance to give me an answer before I told you.”

“That’s very gracious of you.”

“I did think so. Well? Do you want to know?”

A thousand times yes. “I suppose.”

He moved over and pushed some hair from my face. His fingertips trailed down the side of my face, pausing briefly at the cusp of my jaw before they tickled their way along to cup my chin. “I’m thinking I want to kiss you.”

“Is it up for discussion?” I asked softly.

He leaned in until he was so close that I could feel his breath as it skittered over my lips. “We can discuss it, but I’m still going to do it.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and only just stopped myself from leaning into him, too. “Okay, so, here’s a really good idea why we shouldn’t—”

“Wrong answer,” he murmured.

Then he kissed me.

He tilted my head back and pressed his lips against mine. Gently at first. It was nothing more than a brush of his mouth, like a whisper of a kiss, testing to see if I would pull away.

I wouldn’t.

I didn’t.

There was no way I could.

I wanted him to kiss me. Even my protest hadn’t been thought through—there was every chance I would have said that I didn’t even have a reason why we shouldn’t kiss.

I reached for him, clasping the collar of his shirt in my hand. It was soft and crumpled easily, and I tugged him down closer to me. Isaac deepened the kiss until I could feel every part of my body responding to him.

The goosebumps on my skin.

The beating of my heart.

The throbbing of my clit.

My whole body was on fire, and all I wanted was to get even closer to him and just fall into him and this kiss.

Isaac moved closer, wrapping one hand around the back of my neck. I slid my hands up his chest and pulled him closer to me, relishing every touch of his lips as I fell back on the sofa.