I shot her a bland look.
“Oh, yeah, that’s right. You don’t need to breathe oxygen. My bad.” She shot to her feet, knocking the poor quilt to the floor. “Can’t you just come back when it stops raining?”
“No.” I moved back and leaned against the wall, folding my arms. “I want to get this over with. Worrying over you and the Arum isn’t fun, Kitten. We need to do something about this now. There are things we can try.”
Kat was two seconds from losing it, and I loved it. Her hands curled into tiny fists. “Like what?”
“Well, the jumping jacks…an hour or so should do it.” I was only half serious when I made the suggestion, but then my gaze dropped over the front of her shirt. Suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to see her jump around. “You may want to change first.”
Please say no. Please say no to changing .
She took a deep breath. “I’m not doing jumping jacks for an hour.”
And that was a damn shame. Crimson stained the tips of her cheeks. A sure sign she was angry. I couldn’t help myself, so I pushed at her again. “You could run around the house, up and down the stairs.” I met her eyes and grinned. “We could always have sex. I hear that uses up a lot of energy.”
Her mouth dropped open. “That will never happen in a million years, buddy.” She took a step forward, raising her pointer finger at me. “Not even if you were the last— Wait, I can’t even say last human on the face of this Earth.”
“Kitten,” I murmured, sort of offended.
“Not even if you were the last thing that looked like a human on the face of this Earth. Got that? Capiche ?”
I tilted my head to the side and smiled. She was really on a roll now. Eyes bright and face flushed. Part of me hated to admit it, but she was amazing when she was like this. Absolutely amazing.
“I’m not even attracted to you. Not even a little bit. You’re—”
I was in her face before she had a chance to blink. “I’m what?”
“Ignorant,” she said, taking a step back.
“And?” I matched her steps, compelled. Compelled by what? I didn’t know. I came over to work the trace off of her and instead we were arguing with each other after a moment of nice conversation.
“Arrogant. Controlling.” She took another step back, but I didn’t let her get far. Oh no, I was all up in her face, sharing the same air. “And you’re…you’re a jerk.”
“Oh, I’m sure you can do better than that, Kitten.” And I knew she could. Kat had a mouth on her. Speaking of which, my gaze dropped. Her lips parted. Dammit. “Because I seriously doubt you’re not attracted to me.”
She laughed—the sound low and husky. Sexy. “I’m totally not attracted to you.”
I took one more step, and her back was against the wall. Staring down at her, I think I may’ve forgotten to force my lungs to inhale and I definitely forgot the whole point of coming over here. There was only one thing I was thinking about. “You’re lying.”
“And you’re overconfident.” She wetted her lips, and heat pounded through my body. “You know, the whole arrogant thing I mentioned. Not attractive.”
Man, she was so full of it. She’d say anything to keep arguing. Placing my hands on each side of her head, I leaned down, my mouth so close to hers I could almost taste her. I doubted her lips would be sweet. More like one of those red-hot Fireball candies.
I really, really liked that candy.
“Every time you lie, your cheeks turn red,” I told her.
“Nuh-uh,” she said.
I slid my hands down the wall, stopping beside her hips. “I bet you think about me all the time. Nonstop.” As much as I thought about her, which was…nonstop, so it only seemed fair and right that she did the same.
“You’re insane.” She pressed back against the wall, her chest rising and falling sharply.
“You probably even dream about me.” My gaze dropped to her mouth again. Fireball … “I bet you even write my name in your notebooks, over and over again, with a little heart drawn around it.”
She laughed this breathless sound. “In your dreams, Daemon. You’re the last person I think—”
Tired of arguing, I kissed her…just to shut her up. And yeah, I’d keep telling myself that. Just keep right on with that train of thought. That’s why I was kissing her. No other reason.
But the moment our lips met, a shudder rolled through my body and I half growled, half moaned. Because I was right—her mouth was like a hot-as-hell Fireball.
Kat wasn’t arguing anymore.
No, she was shivering.
Kissing really wasn’t necessary anymore and I should stop, needed to stop, but then she pushed off the wall, fitting her body against mine. Her fingers sank in my hair and she moaned against my mouth.
This was so not about shutting her up.
Something came unhinged in me. Like a lock that had been turned. Or a dam that burst. Or, hell, it was like being struck by lightning, run over by a truck, and then shocked back to life. I was moving and doing without really thinking.
My hands gripped her hips, and I lifted her up. Her legs went around my waist and she was kissing me right back with a passion that almost startled me, and I was hoping she didn’t notice that my hands were trembling. Hell, my entire body was shaking. There was a fire under my skin, and I was out of control. Seconds away from going full Luxen on her and what good would that do?
Aw hell, it didn’t matter. Not when I pressed into her and she made this beautifully feminine sound that really had my blood pounding. And I could feel it building in me. Pure power—and it had nowhere to go but out. This had been building for months. Maybe always leading to this.