We’re three paces away from each other.
Two.
One.
She leaps onto me, scaling me like a tree, and our mouths crash, knocking teeth, rough exhales as I clasp her face in one hand and slide the other around her thigh, over her ass, wrenching her close.
“Christopher,” she gasps, threading her hands through my hair, arching against me.
It’s frantic and fevered, not so much a kiss as a consuming, mouths hot and hungry.
“Kate,” I groan, unleashing myself on her, no finesse, nothing I’ve practiced and perfected guiding my mouth or my hands. As I tip my head and take our kiss deeper, her legs tighten around my waist. Her heels dig into my ass, and her fingers claw through my hair. I’m so hard, every brush of her body against mine is sweet, terrible torture. I need her so badly, nails raking down my back, teeth grazing my skin, hoarse, sharp cries as I lose myself in her.
Air rushes out of me as Kate rocks her hips with mine. I crush her closer, moving her tighter over me.
“Yeah.” She nods, grabbing a fistful of my coveralls and pulling me in for another bruising kiss. “More.”
My hand leaves her face, drifts down her chest, molding over her breast, palming it. I find her tight, hard nipple and rub it as she pants into my mouth. When I try to tug at the buttons of her coveralls, rip them open, my grip slips on paint, reminding me what she did—how recklessly she ran into danger.
I don’t care that it was just paintball, a few splatters of biodegradable material striking her skin. Those fuckers had it in for her and she knew it. She put herself right in their line of fire anyway. My anger rushes back, as red as the paint smearing my hand—rage and frustration and fear braided in my blood. I walk us back to the nearest tree and pin her against it. “Don’t run off on me like that, straight into harm, Katerina. Don’t ever do that again.”
“That wasn’t harm,” she pants, working herself against me, head thrown back against the tree, eyes shut.
“It was,” I growl, nipping her neck, dragging my tongue up her throat, tasting her, breathing her in as I punish her with my hips, rutting against her, then pulling back, holding myself away, my hands hard at her waist, denying her what she wants. “Kate, when you’re in danger, listen to me. Let me protect you.”
She plants her feet against the tree, leans into the trunk, and shoves, making me stumble back, hurtling us backward until I land against another tree. Tightening her thighs around my waist again, she straightens her spine, until she’s half a head above me, her hands cupping my face.
I stare up at her, helpless, hopeless, lost in those stormy eyes peering down at me, flashing like lightning as she drifts her fingertips down my cheekbones, dancing them along my jaw. “I was fine,” she murmurs. “I’m fine right now.”
“Dammit,” I growl, craning up, kissing her, squeezing the sweet curve of her ass, dragging my hands up her back. “Tell me what it’ll take. I’ll beg, Kate. Anything. Just don’t scare me like that, stop running headlong into danger.”
“I’m safe,” she whispers. “You don’t need to worry.” Setting her teeth on my bottom lip, she gently bites. “I got hit by two biodegradable paintballs. That’s it.”
I swear against her mouth, lightheaded with need as I drag her closer, crushing my mouth to hers. “It’s still unacceptable.”
She laughs as we break our kiss. “You’re ridiculous.”
“You’re impossible,” I groan, cupping her neck, slipping my fingers into her sweat-soaked hair, tangling with those wild locks knotted high on her head. “God, I can’t stop. I can’t stop and—”
And I’ve tried, I almost tell her. I’ve tried for so long.
She searches my eyes, perplexed, serious. Her thumb sweeps along my temple to my cheekbone, gentle and reflective. “What is it?” Leaning close, lowering her mouth to a breath away from mine, she whispers, “Tell me.”
My hands travel gently up her back, tucking her closer. I draw in a breath, my heart pounding, searching for the bravery to unburden myself. “I—”
“We WON!” Bea’s voice pierces the air.
More voices whoop and yell. Feet pound toward us.
Kate searches my gaze, her eyes dancing between mine. Sticks break under feet. Voices grow closer.
“Hold that thought,” she whispers. Then she plants one last, long kiss to my lips and leaps like a cat from my arms, scoops up a paintball, and launches it toward her sister as Bea steps into view.