“Karina.” Kael turned his entire body toward me. “Please don’t ask me questions that I can’t answer. Not tonight. Please.” His voice was a whisper as his hand cupped my ear.

All of my shame and embarrassment and second thoughts about feeding the hunger I had for him quickly melted out of my body and mind. I couldn’t keep my eyes open when his thumb gently massaged the lobe of my ear. My neck instinctively rolled back and he lifted my head, firmly cradling my neck with his other fingers.

I let him take over. I didn’t want to stop whatever questionable decision we were about to make. His lips were even warmer than his fingers as they brushed against mine. The tiniest of contact. It tickled in a daze-inducing way. He pushed against me, bringing his body to hover over mine. My back pressed against the edge of my couch as his mouth opened mine. A wave of relief, calmness, excitement, silence, screaming, rolled over me. I lifted my hands to his shoulders and guided his body to trade places as I climbed onto his lap, feeling his arousal against the thin silk of my shorts. I could feel the wetness in my panties as I kissed him again and again.

The door shook with a knock just as Kael’s fingers dug into my hips, pressing me closer. I jumped off of him, my knee hitting my cup of tea and splashing it onto the floor.

“Elodie! Oh my god.” I wiped at my mouth and tried to calm myself down. I was quickly coming out of the trance, realizing I would have to face Elodie if she caught us like this. Or my brother, which would be even worse . . .

“It’s probably the food.” Kael stood and went to open the front door. Of course it was the food. Geez, Karina, paranoid much?

Kael set the plastic bag between us without saying a word about the second kiss or what would have happened if the delivery man hadn’t interrupted. He unpacked the bag and opened each container, describing the dish to me without teasing me for having copied his order. He handed me my food first and waited to see my reaction before taking a bite of his own.

“Incredible,” I said with a mouth full of food.

His smile distracted me from wondering if we were going to pretend like it didn’t happen, again. I didn’t want to know the answer to that—not right now, at least. So there we sat, bonding over the foam boxes on our laps, browsing through Netflix, and joking and bickering like an old married couple. The boundaries had all slipped tonight. I hoped it wouldn’t destroy me when I fell.

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN