Free Easy Little Lick (Copperline #3) by Sibylla Matilde Page A

you won’t.” She lowered her hand and pulled away, looking out over the landscape, her posture pensive and conflicted. “It’s not that easy, Cody. That’s not all there is to it.”
    “So tell me the rest.”
    She glanced back over at me, watching me for a moment before she shook her head slowly from side to side.
    She didn’t trust me . She might want me, but whatever her secrets were, she didn’t trust me with them. That thought echoed through my mind, tightening my lungs as I watched her take a few more steps away, towards the overview of the valley below. She bent and sat on the grass, resting her chin on her drawn-up knees.
    “I can’t, Cody. There are a lot of reasons I can’t.”
    I made my way over to her, settling in the grass beside her, studying her as she steepled her index fingers together and pressed them against her full lips. She didn’t say anything for a moment, then turned to face me with a tortured pain in her eyes.
    “I shouldn’t have kissed you,” she breathed solemnly.
    I swallowed back the raw pang her words caused. That really sucked to hear. Big time. It shot a sickening lurch though my stomach, taking me down a notch… or four.
    The most amazing kiss of my life, and she regretted it.
    Catching her gaze and holding it, I tried to sound more confident and cocky than I felt at the moment.
    “I’m glad you did.” The rough edge to my voice gave me away, though. It conveyed the depth of emotion she aroused in me.
    “You shouldn’t be,” she said. Her face was so close, her eyes so incredibly defeated. “You’d do better to stay away from me, for your own sake.”
    “I don’t want to.”
    “Cody,” she whispered, swallowing hard, “I don’t keep my distance because I want to, especially with you. You… everything about you…” Her voice seemed to crack, and she stopped and pressed her lips together before she went on. “But I can’t. We can’t. You shouldn’t waste your time on me.”
    “But I don’t feel like this about anyone but you,” I said, cradling her face in my palms as I searched her teary eyes. “I never have. I know you feel something for me. There was something in that kiss.”
    Her hazel eyes looked up and held mine, clearly tortured with want. Scared and sad and alone, as though she always would be. Like she had to be.
    “It’s because I do feel something for you,” she whispered, “that I can’t.”
    “Tell me why,” I said.
    “Just take my word for it,” she replied.
    “That doesn’t convince me,” I murmured, moving closer, bringing my lips just a breath away from hers. “So unless you can come up with a more concrete reason, I reject your argument.” While I spoke, my fingertips traced small circles along her hairline, pulse points to soothe her, to bring her just a little closer. To relax her enough to trust me just a little bit.
    She lowered her eyes. “Cody,” she said in a breath. Her body was giving in even if her mind chose not to. The attraction I felt between us was real, powerful, and she felt it every bit as much as I did. Her body leaned just a little closer.
    “I've never been so enthralled by a single kiss,” I softly said as I barely brushed my lips against hers. Her breath caught and she swayed into me just enough to almost kiss me. There was no other way to describe it, as though the energy was too great and to actually touch would carry us both away.
    “Cody…” She didn’t really say it as much as she exhaled it.
    “I want to kiss you again,” I whispered with another ghosting over her lips.
    “Cody…” Again, just a slight gasp.
    I caught it with my lips, gentle and sweet. At first, there was the shock of that intimate connection, that softness and that tingle in my gut. Like before, like that first kiss in the back room of the Copperline.
    Only better .
    Then I turned my head to angle the kiss, to deepen it as my arms enfolded her. I pulled her up against my chest, one hand cupping her cheek, my