Nick and Lilac by Marian Tee Page A

“Tell…you…what.” Lilac squeezed his hand. When he looked up, she said very seriously, “I will…make it up to you. I will…let you kill me five times without putting up a fight in the game.”
    Slowly, his chest eased, his breathing becoming regular and his heartbeat speeding up for so many reasons as Nick realized what Lilac was attempting to do.
    Nick smiled.
    Lilac smiled back at him, a goofy smile that he had never seen on her face. It made him laugh out loud, even as a part of him found it equal parts adorable and fucking arousing.
    When Nick still didn’t say a word, Lilac said solemnly, “Last chance. Are you sure…you don’t want to take me up…on it?”
    “Five times?” he murmured.
    “Five times,” she confirmed obediently.
    “I want a different deal. I will accept your apology if you let me kiss you five times.”
    She blinked.
    Ah, sweetheart. That’s not going to help.
    Lilac opened her mouth, and he swooped in, sinking his fingers into her dark luxurious hair as his lips covered hers, his tongue entering and tasting her. Lilac gasped against his lips. He tightened his hold on her hair, pulling her closer, kissing her more deeply, urging her to let go.
    “Kiss me,” he muttered against her lips. Around him, he could feel the gazes swerving towards them, but he didn’t give a fuck. Let them stare if they wanted to. It wouldn’t make Lilac York theirs. This girl was his, and sometimes both of them needed to be reminded of it.
    “Kiss me,” he commanded again. “Or I don’t count this as the first of five.”
    Her eyes widened.
    He gave her another chance, his tongue darting forward once more to boldly explore her mouth. Nick could have groaned when he finally felt Lilac respond, her tongue slowly and shyly touching his. The connection was explosively hot, and he dragged her into his seat, leaning back against the leather seat so that Lilac could straddle him.
    She was deliriously hot and unbelievably bothered. Worse, she could not get enough of Nick Christakos’ kiss. On the back of her mind, she could feel more people looking at them. The sight of couples kissing wasn’t uncommon here, but she had never done anything like this before, and she knew they were all wondering about Nick, about who he was and if he was her boyfriend.
    Oh, if only he was!
    God help her if he was!
    It was so, so very confusing.
    But now, the only thing that made sense was the beauty of Nick’s kiss, and the heat of his caresses. She moaned softly against his lips when his hands caressed her back before settling on her waist and squeezing it, as if he wanted to measure what was his. Nick’s hands slowly moved up and Lilac moaned again, wishing he would move his hands faster but at the same time she wished he would slow down, too.
    Nick’s fingers brushed the undersides of her breasts, and she whimpered even as she thought that everything was going too fast. He cupped her breasts and she moaned against his lips as his hands cupped her.
    “Bite my lip.”
    B-bite m-my c-cock, d-darling.
    FUCKING BITE IT YOU BITCH!
    She wrenched away with a gasp.
    The fear in her pale violet eyes extinguished the lust raging through his body instantly. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
    Lilac shook her head at him, biting her lip hard as her chest rose and fell so rapidly it was as if she had just run a mile.
    “Okay,” he said quietly, trying to soothe her. One look at her face, and Nick knew Lilac didn’t want to talk about it. “Okay, we’ll stop.” He carefully lifted her back into her seat. “Maybe it was too fast, too soon,” he said softly even though he knew it wasn’t. Whatever happened – Nick instinctively knew it had something to do with why she was seeing Dr. Petersen.
    He threaded his fingers through her hair, unable to keep himself from touching Lilac. He half-expected her to twist away but she did not, instead looking at him with a mixture of apprehension and misery.
    He understood in a flash.