His eyes flick to my mouth.My breath catches.
Oh no.Oh no.
His free hand lifts—slow, deliberate.
And then?—
His fingertips slide along my jaw and the pad of his thumb grazes my lower lip, featherlight and completely devastating.
But my entire bodyshatters.
This isn’t a brush of a hand or a wrist grab.It’s definitely not tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.This is…
What the fuckisthis?
My stomach swoops, my nerves spark like live wires, and a full-body shudder runs through me before I can stop it.
My lips part—just a fraction, just enough to take in a single sharp inhale of breath, but the moment it happens his lips curl slightly, his pupils wide as he takes in my reaction.
Like he knows hewon.
And then—just as fast as he cornered me—he steps back.
He turns, flashing me one last devastating smirk over his shoulder.
“Night, Ace.”
Then he disappears into his room, leaving me standing in the hallway, wrecked.
My entire body is still locked in place, like a system crash I can’t reboot.My skin is flushed, my breath too sharp, my pulse a runaway train I can’t slow down.
And the worst part?I can still feel it.
The burn of his touch.The heavy weight of his gaze.The way my breath stuttered when his thumb grazed my lip—like he knew exactly what he was doing—like he wanted to see me come undone.
Like helikedit.
Like he wantedmeto like it, too.
My insides flip violently, and for a horrifying second, I feel something dangerously close to anticipation.A pulse of heat, sharp and unmistakable, twisting low in my stomach before I slam the brakes so hard, I nearly give myself a migraine.
Oh, no.Nope.Nope.I am NOT doing this.
And yet, my entire body is trembling—not in fear, not in anger, but in something far, far worse.
Desire.
Not possible.That is not what this is.
And yet… my fingers lift to my lips, tracing the spot where his thumb had just been.
It tingles.
I groan, letting my head fall back against the wall, praying for divine intervention, or maybe an EMP for my brain so it will erase the last ten minutes from existence.
Because this isn’t just about the fact that Joel got under my skin.It’s the fact that I LET him.
And worse?For one terrifying second—a part of me actually wanted him to.