My pulse stirs under my skin, and I look down at her, making sure I’m reading this right.Her gaze is soft and searching, and the air between us shifts into something of a pull.The kind of pull that could change everything if either of us leaned just an inch closer.
My mother’s voice filters through.You like her.But sometimes the wrong reason puts the right person in your path.
She might be onto something.There are a million reasons this shouldn’t go any further.Grace and I are attracted to each other—so what?
I’ve been attracted to plenty of women before and felt nothing beyond that.Didn’t want to feel anything beyond that.But this is different.Grace is different.
Maybe it’s temporary.Maybe it’s only once.But we’re both adults, and if we’re on the same page, maybe that’s enough.No promises, just two people choosing each other for whatever this is.
I’ve spent so long being the fixer, the responsible one, keeping myself at a careful distance from anything that could cost me.And tonight, standing in a cold parking lot with Erica’s ghost still circling and Grace right in front of me, warm and real and wanting, I’m done letting the fear of failing talk me out of what’s right here.
So, why not?
We stop at the edge of my truck, and she leans, maybe seeking shelter from the wind or just wanting to be close.Her breath ghosts between us, grazing my jaw as she tips up her chin.
“Grace…” Her name leaves me on a low exhale—more caution than warning.
Her fingers lift—tentative for half a second—then they catch at the collar of my jacket in a barely-there hook, but enough to draw me down and undo every line I’ve been holding.
Why the fuck not?
My pulse thunders as she rises onto her toes and presses her sweet mouth to mine.The world narrows and catches fire.Immediate and unforgiving.
Whatever I was clinging to—whatever narrow view I thought I needed to hold—burns like it was never real to begin with.
Her lips brush mine again, firmer this time, then she pauses like she’s giving me the chance to pull away.My breath stumbles, and something severe jolts through my lungs, a flash of lightning, sharp and electric.
Fuck.
After our kiss in the kitchen, I didn’t think I’d get a second chance.My hand slides up her spine, the other cupping the back of her neck, thumb fitting under the hinge of her jaw.She melts into the hold, and when her mouth opens on a quiet inhale, I answer her—deepening, matching, giving.
With the sure slide of her tongue, heat rolls through me.There’s nothing rushed about our kiss, not even wild, only right.
She tastes like cold air and something undeniably satisfying, all Grace, and in that instance, I’m done denying the truth.I’ve been starving for her far too long.
Her eyes blink open, wide and a little dazed.“Maddox…”
I brush my thumb along her cheek.“Yeah.I’m here.”The cold presses in around us, but she’s warm in my hands.Too warm to let go.“Tell me to stop,” I murmur, though every part of me hopes she won’t.
Her gaze drifts to my mouth, then back to my eyes, and she doesn’t step away.Instead, she consumes the little bit of space left between us.“Take me home.”
Fuck.
My fingers wrap around her hand, and I nod, opening the door to the truck.The ride to my place is quiet in that stirring way, silence thick with everything we aren’t saying because our bodies already spoke.
Once at my home, as soon as the front door clicks shut behind us, Grace is on me.Her cool hands slide under my jacket and up my chest, lips finding mine with a hunger that steals the ground from under me.
I grip her hips, thumbs sweeping the warm curves beneath her coat, pulling her closer.Her body presses into mine, soft everywhere I’m hard, and she lets out a sound—quiet, breathy—that punches right through the little restraint I have left.
I kiss her deeper.Slower.My hands trace the length of her spine until she shivers.
“Bedroom?”Her lips move against my mouth.
Christ.
I lace my fingers through hers.“Yeah.This way.”
“Yours.Not mine.”She stares up at me, something unreadable in her gaze as the words tumble out of her.“Your room is away from the others.”