Page 84 of White Hot Kiss
Roth dipped his head again, and when he spoke, his breath was warm against my ear. “But I want to talk about Stony. Remember when I said he cared for you, Layla?”
My grip on his wrists tightened. “Yes. Like I said—”
“You’ve known him all your life. I get that.” His lips brushed the space below my ear, and I gasped. “But has it ever been...like this?”
Before I could even ask “like what,” Roth’s lips traveled across my cheekbone. Tiny, fiery shivers darted along my nerves. His lips brushed the corner of mine, and my pulse fluttered wildly. I was so far out of my league with him it wasn’t funny. “Is it like this, Layla?”
Like this? Ah, the touching...the almost kissing. “No.” I barely recognized my own voice. “I can’t...”
“Can’t what?” The very edges of his teeth came down on my lower lip. A little nip, like he’d mentioned before, and my entire body arched against his. “Can’t what, Layla?”
“I can’t be this close to him,” I admitted in a breathy voice.
Roth’s lips curved into a smile against mine. “What a shame.”
The lack of sincerity was epic. “I’m sure you really feel that way.”
He laughed, and this time, when he pulled back and bent his head again, his lips were against my pulse. This was ridiculous. We needed to talk about stuff. Important stuff. I wasn’t skipping class to do...well, whatever this was with Roth. But damn, what he was doing was all fresh and new to me.
And it felt so unbelievably good—this wild anticipation he was building, a promise that could actually go somewhere. The fierce yearning was like a tempest inside me, swirling and spinning me up so high that I knew the fall would break something valuable. Because this was different—this wasn’t built on hopeless fantasies. Realizing that was as thrilling as it was terrifying.
With effort I didn’t realize I had, I broke away. Roth quirked an eyebrow as he dropped his hands to his sides. His eyes were a heated tawny, consuming in their intensity and frightening in their ability to draw me in, make me forget all that really freaking important stuff.
Clearing my throat, I looked away. “Okay. Back to my question.”
“What did you want to know?” Amusement clung to his words. “I forgot.”
“I’m sure you did.” I sighed, wondering if I was ever going to get Roth to stay on target. “Where have you been?”
He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. “I had to go home.”
“Home as in...?” I lowered my voice even though there was no one else around. “Hell?”
Roth nodded. “I needed to check in and I thought it would be a good chance to ask around, see if anyone knows which demon is pulling the strings.”
I switched my bag to my other arm. “Did you find out anything?”
“Everyone is pretty tight-lipped about it. No one is willing to say who it is, which tells me it’s someone with a lot of reach.”
“Obviously an Upper Level demon like you?”
“But definitely not as awesome as me.” He winked, and, God help me, he actually looked good doing it. “But I didn’t come back empty-handed. I was right about the whole Lesser Key thing. The exact incantation to raise the Lilin is in that Key, and a lot of demons are looking for it, on both sides.”
It clicked together. “That’s why there are so many Upper Level demons around here.”
“Do tell?”
I nodded. “That’s what I hear.”
“And where did you hear that?” When I didn’t say anything, Roth pushed off the wall. His slow, precise steps forced me backward, until I was flush with the wall. Tiny flecks of paint floated into the air. “Sharing is caring, Layla.”
Telling Roth what the Wardens knew wasn’t easy. Guilt settled in my stomach like cement blocks, but I trusted him. Besides saving me from Petr and Lord only knows how many other times, he’d never asked me to trust him. Not once. Maybe for that reason alone, I trusted him.
“We’re in this together, right?” I said, glancing up at him. “I mean, we’re going to figure out the demon behind this and stop it?”
Roth’s eyes met mine. “You and me are like peanut butter and jelly when it comes to this.”
My lips twitched. “Okay, because I don’t feel right telling you this, but I...I trust you.” Pausing, I took a big gulp of air. “The Alphas have said there’s been a lot of Upper Level demon movement in the city. The Wardens are trying to capture and detain. I thought...well, anyway, what’s going on is on the Alphas’ radar.”