Page 45 of She Doesn't Have a Clue
“Simon will have no choice but to give in to all our demands,” said Serena, whispering her final savage words. “I’ll do what I have to to make sure of it.”
Kate pressed into the tiny space between the walls, the air so thick with dust it settled in her lungs like a brick. Jake wedged in after her just as the counterweight in the closet tipped back into place, sealing the door shut. The space was so narrow they could both barely fit, and as Kate felt along in either direction it was clear the space didn’t go anywhere. Except now, they had no way to get back out with the secret door shut.
Serena’s voice was muffled and distant now, drawing away even as Kate felt the walls of their tiny hiding space pressing in, the exposed beams and the smell of rotting wood hanging in the air and smotheringher. She did her best to hold all her feelings in her body, but the panic expanded like a balloon, threatening to pop.
Loretta kicked at the wall with her heavy-soled boot, grunting in frustration. “I should have figured a Prohibition house would have hidden compartments.”
“We’re stuck, Loretta,” came Blake’s voice, warm and close and the slightest bit panicked. Loretta would have found it cute, the way his accent sharpened with concern, if she weren’t too busy trying to find them a way out. “What are we going to do?”
“If there’s a way in, there has to be a way out,” Loretta murmured, feeling all along the wall. “We just need to find it.”
Kate could barely put her arms out with Jake wedged in the space, much less feel her way around for a secret latch or hidden release. Of course Loretta wouldn’t panic, but Kate Valentine didn’t have the luxury of knowing her author would rescue her from the worst danger. Meanwhile, the panic had spread into her lungs, the pressure building intolerably, and she let out one tiny squeak.
“Kate,” Jake whispered, his body wedged against hers.
“Is this a bad time to remember I’m claustrophobic?” Kate huffed. “Because I am. Very claustrophobic. I’m going to scream.”
“You can’t.”
“No, I know. I know I can’t. But I’m going to scream a little bit. One tiny scream.”
“Kate,” Jake said, his voice desperate. Something thumped against the wall on the other side, the sound going off like a shot in their tiny hiding space. The squeak Kate let out was twice as squeaky.
“I can’t hold it in!” Kate said. “I’m sorry.”
She could feel Jake holding the breath in his chest, mentally weighing something. He shifted against her, reminding her how much physical contact they were in. The space was suddenly overheated and stifling.
“Kate?” Jake said, more breath than word, his body bent over her.
“What?” she replied, the scream lodged in her throat, clawing its way up her body.
“Are you sober?”
“More than I’d like to be right now,” she muttered. “That’s kind of a rude question, isn’t it? What does that have to do with… Oh. Ohhhhhhh.”
When I kiss you, it will be for you and me. And you’ll be stone-cold sober.
His hand brushed her cheek, found its way into her hair. “May I?”
“Oh god yes,” she begged.
His lips grazed hers but she was too impatient, pressing into the kiss with her full body, shoving him back against the false wall. It wasn’t a particularly smart move, considering how they’d ended up in that hidey-hole in the first place, but she didn’t care if they came tumbling out and someone put an axe in her skull at that particular moment. Because she was stone-cold sober and Jake was finally kissing her.
And holyshitwas he kissing her. He grabbed her thighs and lifted her up, wrapping them around his waist as he gently pushed her back against the opposite wall, bracing her on a cross beam that put her mouth on a level with his. His tongue was rough against hers, his breath hot as he panted against her lips. His stubble had grown in over the last twenty-four hours, rough and scraping against her mouth as he shifted from her upper lip to her lower lip, pulling it between his teeth. He pressed his groin into hers, the friction dragging groans out of both of them. Kate was pure liquid need, pouring into her center, all of it begging for more contact, more tongue, more friction, more Jake. He rubbed against her again and her eyes rolled back, her head dropping against the wall with a thud.
“Jake,” she panted as his lips made their way down her throat to her collarbone.
“Mmm?” he said, sliding his hands up under the hem of her shirt and splaying them out along her rib cage.
Only in the dark could she be this bold. “I want you inside me.”
Jake shuddered, grinding against her, his teeth tracing lines along her shoulder. “Don’t tempt me, Kate.”
It was hard enough, putting together words when Jake’s lips wereworking their way lower. But his hands joined the assault, sliding up under the line of her bra, one thumb grazing her nipple. A jolt shot right down to her lower half, making her gasp.
“Jake,please. Please, god, please.”
“Mmmm, I like when you call me that,” Jake said, grinning against the hollow of her neck. He brought his index finger and thumb together, rolling her nipple.