Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
“You…you have?” Despite knowing they were just playing-acting, Penny felt her heart begin to speed up as his eyes captured hers.
“Uh-huh…” V’rex leaned a little closer. “Couldn’t help myself. You’re fuckin’ gorgeous—you know that?”
“Oh, uh…” She felt her cheeks getting hot from the way he was looking at her and found she had to look away from his intense gold gaze.
“I hope I’m not making you uncomfortable,” V’rex continued. Lifting one big hand, he brushed her hot cheek with his knuckles, very gently. “You’re just so beautiful I can’t help myself.”
“V’rex…” Penny began uncertainly. “I don’t…”
“Okay, now where’s the stick?” he interrupted, grinning at her.
Penny felt in her pocket and found the stick was gone.
“But I only felt you touch my face,” she protested.
“Because that was all I wanted you to feel,” he emphasized. “When you use the flirt-pick, you keep the mark’s attention where you want it. In that case, I kept it on your face, where I was touching you—not on your pocket, which I was picking.”
He held up the half flavor stick to prove his point.
“I wasn’t kidding though, you know,” he added. “When I said you’re gorgeous.”
Penny bit her lip, uncertain of what to say. She was still half-frightened of the big Hybrid and more than half convinced that any attraction he felt to her must be coming from the ubiquitous Spice in the air. Yet the way he was looking at her made her pulse race. If only he didn’t smell so damn good, she couldn’t help thinking. His dark, spicy scent seemed to draw her to him like a magnet.
“V’rex…” she began, not sure what to say.
“Your turn,” he said. When Penny looked at him in surprise, he put the stick in his right hip pocket and made that “come on” gesture with his hand again. “Okay, sweetheart—I’m your mark. Pick me.”
Heart thumping, Penny came to stand in his space, just as he had come to stand in hers. She didn’t actually have a whole lot of practice flirting. She’d always been a serious academic—never a party girl. Still, she’d had friends who were party girls and she’d seen how they operated at a bar when they wanted a guy to buy them a drink.
“Hi,” she murmured, looking up at the big Hybrid. She caught his eyes and then looked quickly away, as though she was almost too shy to look at him.
“Well, hello there,” V’rex rumbled. “Having a good time?”
“It’s all right.” Penny glanced up at him again. “It could get better,” she added meaningfully.
“Could it, now?” V’rex took a step closer, his eyes catching hers and holding them. “And how would that happen, do you think?”
“You could buy me a drink,” Penny murmured. “Um…” She cleared her throat, breaking character. “I’m not quite sure where to go from here,” she admitted. “I’m, uh, not much of a flirt in real life.”
“You need a reason to touch me,” V’rex advised her. “Whatever I say, laugh and touch my chest. At the same time, you’re reaching for my pocket. Go.”
“Okay. Um…” Penny looked up at him again. “Like I said, you could buy me a drink.”
V’rex gazed at her intently. “I’ll be happy to buy you a drink, sweetheart,” he rumbled softly, looking into Penny’s eyes. “But you’ll have to pay me with a kiss.”
“Oh, you…” Penny laughed flirtatiously and put a hand on the big Hybrid’s broad chest. At the same time, she reached for the stick in his pocket and slipped it out with a twitch of her fingers.
“Did you get it?” V’rex asked her, breaking character himself, though he was still looking into her eyes.
“Sure did.” Penny held up the flavor stick triumphantly.
“Good. You know, I’ve never seen anyone catch on so fast,” V’rex remarked. “You sure you weren’t a thief in your past life? Because you just stole my heart.”
Penny groaned.
“Ugh—that’s a terrible line!”
V’rex grinned. “Yeah, what can I say. “I’m not as smooth with the ladies as I am with my fingers, I guess.”
“I have a hard time believing that,” Penny said skeptically. “Especially the way you were acting with me earlier.”
“That wasn’t acting.” V’rex was suddenly serious. “I was being completely honest—you’re fucking gorgeous, little girl. And you still owe me a kiss for the drink I bought you.”
“But you didn’t actually—” Penny began, but then she was in his arms and V’rex was leaning over her and tilting her chin up so that their mouths met.
Heart thumping, Penny gave in to the kiss. She couldn’t help herself—V’rex was so big and strong and he smelled so good. Even the fear she still felt of the big Hybrid only seemed to add to her excitement.
Despite their earlier intimacies, this was their first kiss and she found out quickly that V’rex was an excellent kisser. He didn’t ram his tongue down her throat like an overeager boy, as Garret used to when they were dating. Instead he kissed her gently—but with passion. Closed mouth at first but, when he lapped gently at Penny’s lips, she opened them eagerly to let him in.