Twice as Hot (Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #2)(40)
Author: Gena Showalter

"First, for all we know, whoever it is leaving me these gifts just wants to sex me up." I spread my fingers, felt his nipple harden underneath my palm. "Second, who says I can’t fall in love with Memory Man?" Rome stiffened. He gripped my arms and shook me, forcing my attention to his face. "Don’t kid." I snapped out of the sensual fog, and my hands fell to my sides. "Who’s kidding? He’s now in possession of your memories of me, which means he’s the closest thing I’ve got to the real you. "

"He’s dangerous, Belle."

"So are you, and we made things work. For a while."

His grip tightened and he leaned down, placing us nose to nose, his choppy breath trekking over my lips.

"You like taunting me, don’t you? Well, guess what? It works. I can’t f**king get you out of my mind." He released me long enough to slam a fist into the plaster just beside my temple. "That kiss was a goddamn mistake. It was supposed to purge you from my thoughts, make me stop wondering what you taste like."

He’d wanted to forget me entirely? To never think of me again? Suddenly I felt as if I’d been strapped down and cut open, salt poured into the wound. "I think I hate you right now," I said honestly.

He pulled back, studied my face before shaking his head. "You don’t hate me." His gaze dropped to my mouth, lingered. "You want me."

He could have been saying get naked, as huskily as he’d uttered the words, but that kind of assurance about my capitulation irritated me. A man that confident would feel comfortable doing something destructive to a relationship – like going home to his ex-wife – and think an apology was all that was needed to patch things up.

"Look, Rome. I love you. I do. And I want you." God, did I want him. Maybe it was my hunger making me admit these things, but I couldn’t hold the words back. "The thing is, I won’t let myself have you." Not now. Not after he’d rejected me. Again.

His gaze jerked up and clashed with mine, confusion darkening those gorgeous irises. "Why not?" Was he…pouting? Surely not. "You should be totally on board with my refusal. I thought we’d already decided to keep things platonic. That’s what you told John, isn’t it?" His eyelids slit dangerously. "I only promised him you wouldn’t catch on fire again. Not that I wouldn’t kiss you again."

Hope, such silly hope. "I don’t believe you. And you can’t just change your mind like that. I’m not a piece of chocolate – " hmm, chocolate " – you can drool over one moment, then forget about the next, and then think about eating again later." Okay, perhaps that wasn’t the best analogy. Rome, eating, teeth and tongue moving, working…I shivered. "I know what it feels like to be made love to by a man who loves me, and I won’t settle for anything less. Now, you need to leave." The very teeth I was imagining all over my body suddenly flashed in a show of aggression. "I can’t stay away. That’s the problem. What the hell have you done to me?" Anger gave me strength. I fisted the fabric of his shirt, bones so taut they could have snapped. "What are you implying?"

"Does your saliva have an addictive agent in it? Is that another of your powers?" So. He thought I’d somehow tricked him into desiring me, that he couldn’t possibly want me because he had loved me, because we’d had something special. Had, I thought. Key word.

My love life was going up in flames around me, and there was nothing I could do but watch it burn.

"Maybe it does," I said sadly. Then, with more force, "Maybe, when I find Memory Man, I’ll kiss the hell out of him. Maybe he’ll ask me to marry him and actually go through with it." Though I’d meant to sound flippant there at the end, my hurt rang through loud and clear.

The more I spoke, the more Rome’s pupils narrowed until there was nothing left but a thin black line. He cupped my chin, forcing my face to his. "When I was a boy, I saved my money for months because I wanted to buy a pet lizard. Have I told you this before?"

"No, but what does that have to do with anything?" I asked, even though I was desperate to hear the story. I loved him, but I didn’t know much about his childhood.

"Just listen. Like I said, I saved for months. Finally, I’d saved enough. I went to the pet store, bought everything I needed for its care and took little Bone Crusher home."

"You named him Bone Crusher? "

He acted as if I hadn’t spoken. "I owned him for three weeks before my mom noticed him. By that time, I loved him, couldn’t imagine my life without him."

I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. "Bone Crusher, though?"

"My mom saw him and freaked. She made me let him go out back, held me against her so I couldn’t run after him. I cried for days."

"I – I – " Wanted to hug him. The little boy he’d been, the man he’d become. Both were precious to me. I coughed to cover my softening. "What does Bone Crusher have to do with me?" Once more, Rome got in my face. He was fury and he was hurt; he was longing and he was determination. He was…everything. "I’ve regretted that I didn’t fight for him ever since."

"I don’t understand." Was afraid to hope.

His jaw hardened, so firm and stubborn my heart swelled. "I’m going to kiss you, Belle. And I’m going to touch you."

I lost my breath. Or rather, it caught in my throat, hanging there, suspended. "We’re not supposed to do this," I whispered, because I couldn’t say no. But maybe I could talk us out of this.

"So?"

"So." I licked my lips. "I’m not going to let myself have you until your memory returns." If I could find the strength to continue to resist him. Right now, that seemed more impossible than Desert Gall deciding to turn herself in.

His gaze had followed the movement of my tongue. "I remember our last kiss." The hoarse statement dripped with desire.

Oh, God. Already my resistance was crumbling. "I could burn you." Again. Could burn this house.

"Could?" He chuckled without humor. "You already have."

Fight his appeal."It’s dangerous." A reminder for me, for him.

"Doesn’t have to be. John told me I caged your abilities once, kept us both safe from them."

"Key word once. "

"I want to try again. And I will." He didn’t give me time to utter another protest. He simply smothered my lips with his own, his tongue thrusting deep and hard and hot.

My hands were in his hair before I could stop them, fisting, nails digging into his scalp just as his were in mine. Our tongues took and gave and fought, but I finally allowed him to conquer. His lips were soft, his body a hard press.