Page 78 of Unveil

“Then what is it about? Wait. You know what?” She waves me off. “I don’t care. Come dance.”

She reaches for my hand, but I pull back. “What the hell, Luna?Icare. What’s going on right now? This isn’t like you.”

“Nothing’s going on. This is just therealme.”

I shake my head. “No. It’s not. You don’t talk like this.”

“Like what?” She picks up the jug, letting it dangle at her side.

“Like you don’t give a shit about anything.” I swallow. “Like you don’t give a shit about what happened between us.”

She hesitates, then shrugs and points the jug at me.

“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. But you wouldn’t know. There’s alotyou don’t know about me. Like how I’m not drunk. My ankle’s just being dumb, and the jug helps me balance.” She makes her point with a pirouette and a wicked smile. “Or that I wish you’d just finish what you started earlier.”

Her free hand slides down my damp chest before her plush lips suddenly crash to mine in a hungry, messy kiss. Sure enough, no hint of moonshine, though.

What the hell?

Her nails rake down my abs with feral abandon and sink past the waistband of my jeans, already slung low from water weight.

“Whoa, no… stop,” I mutter in a half-assed order. If my jeans come off, it’s game over. I’ll take her eager ass right now.

But she’s fumbling with my belt, trembling and frenzied like a woman possessed. Like shehasto do this.

I growl, clawing up willpower from the depths of my black heart. “I saidno, Luna.”

She freezes. I exhale and place firm hands on her shoulders to guide her away from me.

“Let’s take a beat, okay?”

She doesn’t make a move for me, but her tongue darts over her lips as her gaze trails down my heaving chest.

I groan. “Don’t look at me like that.” My cock throbs in my jeans, but I force myself to focus. “We need to talk about today before we do anything like it again.”

She blinks, then tilts her head and smiles thinly.

“I don’t want to.”

Worry needles the back of my skull.

Okay, pivot.

“Fine. We won’t yet.” I let go of her and back up, giving her space. “So, what’d you do today?”

“Oh, you know. Literallynothing.” She huffs. “Oh, wait, I danced in the rain. That was fun.”

“The rain? It didn’t start raining until nightfall, and it’s been thundering and lightning ever since. Luna, that’s dangerous.”

“Jee-zus, you’re a buzzkill. I stopped before it got really bad.” Then she grins impishly. “OrdidI? Maybe lightning was my spotlight. Maybe the thunder was my applause. Maybe I wasreckless. You know, my M.O.? Doing all the wrong things. Giving in to all my impulses. Or maybe I got it allthatout of my system by almost fucking mykidnapper.”

“Back to that, huh?” I tongue my cheek, then nod once. “Alright, baby. You said you don’t want to talk, but obviously you do. So let’s talk about it.”

“No,” she flings back. Using the jug and the mantel behind the iron stove for balance, she turns her feet out and bends at her knees. “I don’t want to.”

I blow out a frustrated breath. “So you’re choosing to be passive-aggressive instead?”

She flinches to a stop, and I wince.