Page 29 of Twisted Steel
“You said my name like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like a warning.”
“It is.”
Her lips part and my restraint frays.I have taken hits.Bullets.Knives.Orders I hated.Silence when I wanted to roar.I have stood in rooms with men begging and felt nothing.Standing in Harper Quinn’s bedroom with her staring at my mouth feels like the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
She lifts her hand, stops, her fingers hover inches from my chest.
“Are you hurt anywhere else?”she asks.
“No.”
“Liar.”
“Yes.”
Her palm lands against my ribs.Light.Testing.I go still so fast that the whole world seems to freeze around that single point of contact.She feels it.The way my body locks, the way I let her touch and don’t reach back.
Her eyes darken.“Steel,” she whispers.
I should step away.I should do anything but what I do.I lower my head, not enough to kiss her, just enough to make the question clear.
She could move.She could tell me no.She could push me back, and I would go.Instead, her fingers curl in my shirt, and I kiss her.It’s not gentle.But I make it careful.I keep my hands to myself even though every instinct in me wants to fist them in her hair and take the sound she makes straight from her mouth.
She tastes like fear, mint, and anger.She kisses like she fights.Sharp.Full force.No surrender.A low sound breaks out of me before I can stop it, and Harper’s grip tightens before she shoves me back.
I move instantly.Her chest rises and falls too fast.Her mouth is wet.Her eyes are furious.
“And kissing you was stupid.”
“Yes.”
Her glare could cut glass.“You’re supposed to disagree.”
“I won’t lie to you.”
She laughs, breathless and angry and shaken.“God, you are impossible.”
“Yes.”
“And terrifying.”
“Yes.”
“And I still need you to leave the room while I pack.”
That surprises me.Not the demand.The surrender.
“You’re coming?”
“I’m relocating temporarily because my bedroom window has become a community entrance.”
My mouth almost moves again.
She points at me.“Don’t smile.I’ll retract my sensible decision out of spite.”
