I pressed my lips together but the whimper came out anyway.

"Weren't you," he said against my ear. Not a question. Low and certain and devastatingly calm.

His free hand came up and cupped my jaw, tilting my face toward his. His thumb brushed my lower lip, slow and deliberate, pressing lightly against the seam of my mouth. I parted my lips without thinking — completely involuntarily — and he slid his thumb inside, just to the first knuckle, letting me close around it.

The taste of his skin against my tongue made heat flood through me so sharply it was almost dizzying.

"Yeah," he breathed, watching my face with...