Part 10 (1/2)

Lily wasn't someone he could take to bed and forget. He f.u.c.king liked her, d.a.m.n it. More so with each minute that pa.s.sed.

”Having second thoughts?” She eyed him with curiosity.

Second, third, and fourth ones, and not a single one of them took away the hunger Jonas felt whenever he looked at her. She was just so alive. That vitality had no doubt been dampened by the events of the last few weeks, but it refused to be extinguished completely.

”Nope.” He finished wiping his hands. ”I hope you know what you're doing when it comes to building snowmen, because there wasn't a lot of call for it on the reservation.”

”No snow in Arizona?”

”Not when I lived there, no.”

”No skiing holidays since?”

He shuddered at the thought of it. ”No.”

”Then you're in for a treat,” she promised as she preceded him down the spiral staircase and into his bedroom.

Jonas grimaced as he saw that his unmade bed looked as if half a dozen people had been fighting in it. The bedclothes were partly on the bed and the rest on the floor, pillows thrown haphazardly against the headboard.

All done while Jonas tossed and turned in an attempt to force himself to fall asleep and forget Lily was only feet away across the hallway.

Lily hadn't asked about Evan Butler's condition this morning, and Jonas was reluctant to bring the subject up too. As promised, he had received a phone call from his contact in the police early this morning. Evan had died during the night. Lily was going to be devastated once she knew.

All the more reason to distract her by going outside and building a snowman.

”Don't tell me you didn't have fun, because I won't believe you.” Lily eyed Jonas teasingly as he sat across the breakfast bar from her an hour or so later, cold hands wrapped about one of the mugs of hot chocolate she had made for them. There hadn't been any cream or marshmallows to put on top of it, but the chocolate drink itself was delicious and warming.

There hadn't been any coal or a carrot for the snowman's eyes and nose either, but she had improvised with three dried pine cones she found buried beneath the snow. A snowman almost as tall as Jonas now had pride of place at the front of the house. There had even been a small s...o...b..ll fight after she accidentally dropped some snow down one of Jonas's ankle-high biker boots.

”It was...different,” he allowed grudgingly. ”But I'm no more sold on the idea of snow than I was before.”

”Bah, humbug.”

There was no way Jonas was going to admit how much he had enjoyed their hour outside. h.e.l.l, he'd actually had fun. Childish, irresponsible fun. And that hadn't happened too often in his life.

Lily looked at him over the rim of her mug. ”Have you always painted?”

Jonas tensed, suspecting Lily had waited until he was completely relaxed before asking the personal question. ”Isn't it time you started cooking brunch?”

”I haven't finished my hot chocolate yet.”

”I have.” He placed his empty mug carefully down on the breakfast bar. ”A deal is a deal, Lily.”

Her gaze was quizzical as it met his. ”You don't like answering personal questions, do you?”

His jaw firmed. ”What I don't like is having to guess the reason for asking them.”

”And what do you imagine my reason is, Jonas?”

He shrugged. ”I have no idea.”

And he didn't want to have one, Lily realized, hurt in spite of herself. She had thought she and Jonas had developed a connection, albeit because of the tense situation they found themselves in. But he was once again deliberately snubbing her, warning her off with his rudeness.

Because she had probed too deeply into his personal life again?

Without a doubt.

”Well, when you work it out, let me know, hmm?” she said softly as she stood up. ”Because I thought I was taking an interest in the person I'm sharing a house with, but I could be wrong.”

How to feel like a complete b.a.s.t.a.r.d without even trying, Jonas acknowledged self-disgustedly. Most people knew better than to ask him personal questions, but Lily just forged ahead regardless. And he had slapped her down with the same disregard for her feelings.

He stood. ”Lily-”

”It's okay, Jonas, I get it. No personal questions.” She gave him a bright smile that didn't dispel the shadows in her eyes.

Making him feel like the complete and utter b.a.s.t.a.r.d he had behaved like. Interpersonal relations.h.i.+ps weren't his thing.

Then it's time-past time-I f.u.c.king made them my thing.

He had hurt Lily just now. Deliberately. He could see it in the way she kept her back toward him, and the stiff set of her shoulders as she took the food out of the fridge for their brunch.

His stomach churned at that knowledge, and his heart beat a little faster than usual with discomfort.

”Lily...” He crossed the kitchen in three long strides to place his hands on her stiff shoulders, able to feel her warmth through the thickness of her sweater. ”I'm sorry, okay? I... d.a.m.n it, I'm really sorry.”

She gave no response for several long seconds, and then there was the sound of a choked sob before she turned to face him, her arms going about his waist as she pressed her face against his chest and she began to cry in earnest.

Lily once again nestled trustingly in his arms, and putting them back in the exact position Jonas had been trying so hard to avoid...

Oh f.u.c.k it. f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k it.

He arched his upper body back slightly so that he could look at her. Her eyes were a dark, pained blue-green, her cheeks pale, her lips... Her lips were a deep red, slightly puffy and parted, and tempting him to kiss them.

Jonas's head swooped down, and he gave a satisfied groan as he captured those delicious lips with his own.

Lily reveled in that groan, her lips parting instinctively to the invasion of Jonas's tongue, and she returned and responded to the depth of his kiss.

It was as if Lily had been waiting for this since they had been together the night before in her own kitchen as her body tightened with the need for Jonas's. All of him, not just the miniscule parts of himself he so grudgingly gave her.

Her hands snaked up over his washboard abs and hard muscular chest, fingers entwining in the hair at his nape as she pulled him down to her, her own tongue dueling with his for domination of the kiss, of the desire flaring like wildfire between them. The evidence of Jonas's arousal pressed, pulsing, against her abdomen, the moisture pooling between her thighs in antic.i.p.ation.

She gasped, lips parting even wider to the invasion of Jonas's tongue, as she felt the warmth of his hands on her back beneath her sweater, stroking, caressing a steady path to where her nipples were hard peaks and begging for his touch.

She cried out, breaking the kiss, as one of his hands cupped her breast, her nipple tingling in response to that warmth, the heat growing stronger between her thighs.

”Your mouth is so f.u.c.king hot, Lily,” he groaned, his lips against her throat, finger and thumb squeezing, rolling her aroused nipple through the thin material of her bra. ”I want to feel it on me. Around me. Taking me.” He fisted his hand in the dark thickness of her hair, arching her throat as he lifted her face to his. ”Will you do that, Lily? Will you let me f.u.c.k your mouth?”