Page 12 of Savage Blooms (Unearthly Delights #1)

“That’s sweet,” she said softly, eyes falling to his mouth.

Finley’s heart constricted in his chest as heat curled low in his belly.

She had been flirting with him, then, and she wanted him to kiss her just as badly as he wanted to kiss her.

The air was charged and dangerous, fraught with delicious potential.

It would feel so good to steal one kiss from this beautiful bright girl, one thing for himself, right here on this cliffside that he loved more than anywhere else in the world.

But he had been alive long enough to know that gambling security for the sake of pleasure always ended in disaster, and he would not be the reason everything fell apart now.

“We should probably get back to the house,” he said.

Disappointment glimmered in her eyes, and Finley dropped his gaze as he stepped away so he wouldn’t have to see how hopeful she had been.

But as he turned, Nicola pushed up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to Finley’s cheek, brazen even in how chaste it was.

Her lips were petal-soft and warm, scented with vanilla balm.

Finley stared at her and Nicola stared right back, a slightly exhilarated, slightly spooked look in her eye. Something about that look broke down whatever civilized dam was holding back the all-consuming floodwaters of Finley’s desire.

He dropped his head and kissed Nicola.

It was brief, barely more than a peck, but Nicola responded as though he had touched her underneath her jeans. She let out a little sound of pleasure and arched her back up towards him, pressing her full breasts against Finley’s chest.

“You don’t want me,” Finley said, more a statement of fact than an opinion or apology. Finley was a dead-end road for any woman or man foolish enough to walk down it, and he knew that.

“How do you know what I want?” Nicola asked. “Maybe all I want right now is for you to kiss me again.”

It was impossible to say who closed the gap first. One moment they were separated, and the next moment Finley was kissing Nicola with ravenous hunger, and Nicola was digging her nails into his shoulders beneath the fabric of his jumper.

She made the sweetest sounds, openly wanton, and it only made Finley want to kiss her harder, touch her more.

He threaded his fingers through her short hair, grasping lightly.

He usually restrained himself during his dalliances with village girls, reminding himself to be gentle, to go slow. Only Eileen knew and welcomed that dark part of him that craved the intensity of exchanging pain along with pleasure, but something about Nicola made it hard to pretend.

He tightened his grip just enough to hold her in place for his kiss, right on the precipice of pain, hoping she wouldn’t notice.

Nicola’s breath caught in her throat, and she let out a shuddering gasp as she broke away.

Finley released her as though she was a hot stove.

“I’m sorry,” he said, pulse pounding. God, he couldn’t even kiss someone without ruining everything. “I didn’t mean to—”

Nicola wasn’t even looking at him, and she hadn’t let him go. She was clutching his arms, staring wide-eyed at something over his shoulder.

Finley swiveled to follow her gaze. He almost missed it, but a life lived tending Craigmar land made him well acquainted with anything out of the ordinary.

A pale figure watched them from the edge of the woods, impossibly tall and angular.

It stepped behind a tree before Finley could make out any distinguishable features, but he knew well enough what it was.

If he wasn’t sure before, the way it never emerged from the other side of the tree, merely winked out of existence, was all the confirmation he needed.

“Did you see that?” Nicola said, voice tight. “There was a… a person, or something. In the woods. Right there. I saw it, and then it was just gone. I saw it, Finley.”

There was no way for Finley to deny what she had seen with her own two eyes, not when she was gripping him like he was the driftwood that was saving her from drowning.

But he had no answers to give her, at least no answers that wouldn’t bring everything he and Eileen had worked to protect crashing down.

Finley should let Nicola go. He should apologize for touching her, for bringing her out here in the first place. But even though his brain knew that’s what he should do, what he did do was smooth a soothing hand over her head and then wrap his arm around her shoulders, giving her a squeeze.

Nicola’s panicked breathing began to slow beneath his steady touch, the muscles in her back softening like she had already been taught to seek solace in him, and that somehow made everything worse.

Standing arrangement with Eileen or no, he absolutely should not be taking liberties with the guests, and calculated distraction or not, he probably shouldn’t have taken Nicola this far from the house. He certainly shouldn’t have kissed her.

And Eileen was going to know, the moment she saw his face. You didn’t grow up with someone, share every fumbling first with them, and have them not be able to read you like a book.

Finley reached down and squeezed Nicola’s hand, almost in apology.

“We should get back to the house,” he said.