he gave her time to pull back , lowering his head slowly , inch by inch , until his lips feathered over hers , back and forth , soft as velvet . her mother was there , and luke . she bit back the words to tell him she would choose the time and place of their next meeting , but it would do little good . it had gone so , so wrong . nick had to bite his tongue to keep from saying it was still mark who was crazy . 