The scent of vanilla and adrenaline clings to her skin, mixing with the lingering warmth of the crowded party.
She’s so close now, just inches away, and I focus on the heat rolling off her body.It grounds me.
Her fingers flex at her sides, like she’s fighting the urge to do something.
Fight me.Touch me.
Just don’t run, Ace.
Stay.
“You’re wrong,” she finally whispers, but it’s barely a breath.
“Liar,” I repeat, tipping my head down, close enough that if she just leaned in?—
She shoves me.Hard.
I barely stumble, but her hands stay fisted on the front of my hanbok.Her touch sparks my pulse to ratchet and now it’s my breath that hitches.
“Why are you doing this?”Her voice is strained, almost desperate.“Why can’t you just let this go?”
“Because I can’t.”The words are ragged, torn from somewhere deep.“I don’t think you can, either.”
She makes a sound—frustration, denial, something breaking.Her chest is heaving, her pulse a wild, stuttering thing against her throat.I want to run my tongue over it.
The silence stretches, thick and suffocating, like neither of us can breathe.
Her gaze flicks to my mouth.
And that’s it.That’s the moment.
I see it happening before it does, but I can’t convince my brain that it’s the truth—not yet.
Her fingers grip tighter to my hanbok and my pulse kicks like a gunshot, tempting other parts of me to awaken.
Her breath ghosts against my lips, one last moment of hesitation?—
And then, she yanks me down—and suddenly, her mouth crashes into mine.
It’s not soft.It’s not careful.It’s raw and messy and too much and not enough—everything all at once.
For a second, I don’t move.
I just let myself feel it.
Anna Chang—stubborn, impossible,infuriatingAnna—is kissing me.
After all these years.After all the pushing and pulling, the fighting, the pretending—she snapped first.Sort of.
She’s kissingme.
My brain short-circuits.My entire world tilts on its damn axis.
Because this?This wasn’t supposed to happen.Was it?
Was this what I was going for?
And then my body catches up.