Page 85 of Winter’s Teeth

Now he wanted me to slow down?

I let out a groaning huff. “Fox...”

He dared to chuckle, breathy and hoarse, tickling my skin. “So needy.”

“You started this.”

“Technically you did.”

“What?” I blinked, trying to clear the kiss-addled daze, but failing. “What are you talking about?”

His voice dipped low as he replied, “You started it by looking so damn kissable when we woke up. And then saying you needed to get your heart rate up.”

It took my foggy brain a minute to catch up, putting together all the words he said. “You... I... What?”

The longer his words sank in, the longer his implications marinated, the more heated I grew. The more desperate.

I tried to free my wrists, giving another shove in an attempt to sit up and pin him to the ground. He let me, but we only got halfway. With deft, quick motions, I found myself on my side, his arms trapping me against his chest.

I frowned, trying to wriggle free and craning my neck to peer up at him with a pout. “I can’t kiss you like this.”

“It’s not a punishment,” he promised, then dipped his head to kiss the side of my neck, trailing up to my earlobe where he nipped and licked.

“Fox—” I groaned. Pushing my hips back, I tried to grind against him, but he slid one of his forearms lower to lock my hips in place. “You’re killing me.”

“I know, and I’m enjoying it.”

“Evil.”

“I’m not. I just...”

I stopped fighting him as soon as he trailed off. There was clearly something he wasn’t telling me. Clearly a reason he didn’t want me to take things further. Whatever the reason, I wasn’t moving another inch with him until I knew he wanted the same things. It was no fun if only I wanted it, but it stung just a little to learn he might not want me as badly as I wanted him.

He turned me a quarter of the way back into him, capturing my mouth in another soul-searing kiss that banished every doubt I’d been about to have. He wanted this. He wanted me. Badly.

Yet there was still something holding him back.

This would do for now though. His kisses and touches would satiate me.

When his hand slid low, fingers playing with the zipper of my snowpants to get beneath the polyester, I grabbed his wrist.

Our kiss broke apart abruptly, and he stared at me with wide, expectant eyes. You don’t want this? he seemed to ask.

I shook my head. “I don’t want this unless you’re getting the same treatment right after me.”

Fox’s jaw ticked, his thoughts running away from him. “I... Just not yet.”

“That’s okay.” I leaned up to kiss his chin. Then his nose. Hand on his cheek, I smiled at him genuinely. “So long as you’re okay with the fact that I’m burning for you. And I won’t bite my tongue if I think you need to be told how hot you look.”

His smirk returned, the dimple coming with it. “Are you sure I can’t take care of you?” His hand tried to get back to the snow pants zipper.

I held his wrist captive, not letting him move another inch. “Uh-uh. As much as I would love that right now, and I think you would, too”—judging by the hungry look in his eyes and how he couldn’t stop tracking my lips like a determined hawk— “I’m not in this for quick satisfaction. I’m playing for keeps.”

His eyes jerked up, catching mine, and held fast. His heart thundered against my chest as I shifted to fit our bodies together like missing puzzle pieces once more.

Hand on his cheek, my fingers traced the curve of his ear, smoothing back a few locks of his hair. “I can wait.”

I said that, and yet I was throbbing between my legs, aching for more. Something hard and lengthy pressing into my hip seemed to want the same.