Chapter Twenty-Three

Dylan

Before I even opened my eyes, before I was even fully awake, I could feel her next to me, not because I’d have known her smell anywhere or because we were still pretty much wrapped around each other in the exact same position we’d fallen asleep in, but because it was her that was in my arms.
Not knowing what time it was, I opened my eyes to darkness. Frowning, I moved just an inch or two and tried to reach under the pillow to get my phone without waking Zoe up.
“Dylan?”
Her voice was still husky, still groggy.
“Ssshhh, I’m here. Go back to sleep,” I whispered into her neck then finally managed to grab my phone under her head.
The light coming from the phone illuminated us, and I had to blink to see the time on the screen.
“What time is it?” Zoe asked as she shielded her half-closed eyes with the back of her hand.
I turned the phone off and pushed it back under the pillow.
Zoe shifted and turned her head to look at me. I could barely make out her features in the dark, but I could see that her eyes were open and staring into mine.
I ran the backs of my fingers against her cheek. “It’s only four thirty.”
“So we slept, what, just a little over two hours?”
“Something like that.” I let my fingers trail down to her neck and tried to be gentle as I did a quick sweep.
“It felt like more,” she whispered in a low voice.
“Does it still hurt?” I whispered back, anger laced through my voice. She swallowed and I felt the movement under my touch.
“It’s okay.”
I could’ve killed that sick bastard for putting his hands on her. If she hadn’t stopped me, hadn’t burrowed herself into my arms, I’m not sure I would’ve stopped. Feeling helpless, that deep burn in my chest—the same one I had felt at the library when I’d first seen him press Zoe against the bookshelves—started to consume me again, that intense initial shock, the sudden anger.
“Dylan? What’s wrong?”
After three maneuvers, she was facing me. At first, she didn’t seem to know what to do with her hands, but then she placed her right one on my chest.
“Hey, where did you go?”
I covered her hand with my own and dropped my forehead against hers.
“I don’t think I’m gonna be able to go back to sleep. Since I’m already awake, I’ll get in a workout. You go back to sleep. You need a few more hours.”
I moved to leave but had to stop halfway out of bed when she spoke up.
“I can’t go back to sleep either.”
“Zoe—”
“I can go back to my bed if you can’t sleep because I’m here.”
Frowning, I folded myself back into the bed.
“Where did that come from?”
“Why are you leaving?”
“I won’t be able to fall asleep, Zoe. I’m still angry. You can go back—”
“To sleep. I heard you already. Are you angry at me?”
“Why would I be angry at you?”
“If you’re not, why am I being punished?”
I relaxed and chuckled. “You want me here that bad?”
“Yes.”
I hadn’t thought she would answer, so when she did, it threw me for a loop. “I…okay. Okay, you got me then.”
“Okay. Good. If we’re going to be miserable, we might as well do it together.”
“That’s the only reason?”
She pulled her hand out from under the covers and gave my shoulder a light punch, and then another. Silently, I waited for an answer.
“No,” she replied with a sigh. “Dylan, I…”
I reached between us and laced our fingers together. Lifting her chin, she peered up at me.
“I have this…thing for you,” she said quietly, letting out a breath as if relieved to say it out loud. Did she think she had been hiding it from me all this time? Did she think I didn’t know, didn’t feel the same…thing?
After resting our hands on her hip, I leaned down so I could speak into her ear.
“I have a thing for you, too, Flash.”
She groaned and tried to let go of my hand, but I held her tighter. “I’m not joking, Dylan. I really have a big thing for you.”
“How big?” I asked, having trouble keeping the smile out of my voice. There was another tug on my hand, so this time I let her go.
“I’m trying to tell you how I—”
My hand free, I caught her chin between my thumb and index finger and tilted her head up so she could look into my eyes. There wasn’t quite enough light for her to make out my expression, but I was hoping hearing it in my voice would help.
“It was after the second time I saw you, the time you tried to run away from me and crashed into that building. Remember that?”
“I wasn’t trying to run away fr—by the way, it was just a model. It’s not like I ran into an actual bu—”
“I looked for you,” I whispered over her. “To be honest, I didn’t ask around to try to find you, wouldn’t have even known where to start to do that, but I was hoping to see you again. So, I think without even realizing what I was doing, I was searching for you. I remember this time when a girl walked around a corner, holding her books to her chest just like you were doing when you saw me that second time. She was laughing with her friends, and I just stopped walking. Her face was turned so I couldn’t see her enough to recognize you, but she had the same hair color”—I tucked Zoe’s hair behind her ear—“same pale skin. She stopped me right in my tracks, Zoe, because I thought, There she is. There she is again. Then she turned around and she wasn’t you. I remember feeling so disappointed. It happened a few times, not to that extent, but I thought I saw you and you were never there.”
She took a deep breath and waited for more.
“Now…now I couldn’t possibly not recognize you. Now you’re everywhere, always on my mind. I close my eyes and I can see you, right there.” My focus dropped low as I brushed her bottom lip with my thumb and her lips parted. “Now, I could never mistake you for someone else. Your shy little smile, your big happy smile, the shape of your eyes…you’re all I think about, Zoe. When I wake up, I can’t wait to work out because I know you’ll be up only minutes after me. I’ll hear your footsteps, you’ll come into the kitchen still half asleep and so beautiful, and then you’ll innocently perv on me while acting like you’re having breakfast.”
She groaned and I laughed.
“Don’t be mean to me,” she muttered in a serious voice, but the quiet laughter that came after gave her away. “And I wasn’t perving on you. I was just…”
“I don’t care what you call it. I like it. I like having your eyes on me. I love it even more when you look into my eyes and give me your biggest smile. Every time I see you smiling at me like that, like after the game in Tucson, it feels like you’re handing me your world. Even in the dark, I can feel your—”
Before I could finish my sentence, her head shot up and her lips found mine. Not prepared for it, I couldn’t soften the kiss, and our teeth clashed. She immediately drew her head back. I knew she was blushing; I didn’t need any light to know that. She covered her mouth with her hand.
“I’m sorry. I just—”
This time I didn’t wait to hear the rest. As far as I was concerned, even though it had lasted only one second, that brief kiss was the best kiss of my life.
Pulling her hand down, I cupped the back of her head and went in for more. I didn’t want to miss out on another second with this girl. Fuck everything. Fuck everyone. None of it mattered. She molded her lips to mine without a second of hesitation. My body moved closer and hers did the same until we were flush against each other. I tilted my head and went in deeper, my tongue tasting every inch. She moaned against me and I felt her fist pulling on my shirt. Our mouths moved in perfect tandem as we pushed and pulled at each other for more.
When we had to breathe, Zoe moaned my name. “Dylan.”
Just that single word coming from her lips added fuel to the fire inside me, and I let go of the back of her head to slide my hand down to her waist so I could pull her even closer, even though there wasn’t even an inch of empty space separating us. She made no protest, only arched toward me and kissed me again. Our breaths coming in harsh bursts, she whimpered into my mouth and wrapped her arms around my neck.
With difficulty, I stopped kissing her and whispered against her lips. “Too much?”
“No,” she said breathlessly. “It’s not enough.”
With a groan that came from deep within my chest, I bit her bottom lip and pushed my tongue back inside. I shoved my left arm underneath her and pulled her on top of me as I dropped to my back on the tiny bed. She squealed into my mouth but never stopped kissing me. She just planted her hands on either side of my face, threw her leg over my thigh, and kept going. I pulled her hair to one side and shifted my hands from her shoulders to her arms and then to her waist. I pushed her shirt up just enough so I could feel her skin under my hands. She shivered when I grasped her waist as tight as I could without hurting her.
Our breathing still out of control, I opened my eyes when she whispered my name and touched my face with her hand.
“Yeah,” I croaked, and then I pushed up just enough so I could take her lips. A second or two was sufficient time for breathing. She kissed me back, just as hard, just as hungry as her tongue tangled with mine.
“Wait,” she murmured, her lips moving against mine when we had to break apart to breathe. “Just a second.”
I groaned but stopped like she’d asked. I focused on the edge of her lips and neck instead.
One of her legs had dropped between mine when I’d pulled her over me, but she straightened a little, taking her soft skin from my lips, and straddled me, sitting right on top of my dick.
“Shit,” I groaned, reaching for her hips. “Maybe that’s not a good idea, Flash.”
One of her hands was resting on my stomach for balance as she pushed her hair away from her face with the other.
“What?”
I pulled her hips a little forward so she wouldn’t be right on top of my already hard-as-a-damn-rock dick and grunted when the rough slide felt better than anything ever had. “That,” I repeated gruffly, hoping she’d know what I meant. Now both of her hands were on my stomach and she was still out of breath, just like me.
She pushed her hips back right where they’d been and bit her lip. “Funny, to me that felt like the most amazing idea in the world.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes.”
I sat up and caught her with one arm before she could fall back. Dragging our bodies higher up in the bed, I settled against the low headboard. My head slumped back against the wall as she squirmed on my lap until she was comfortable.
Pushing my hand back up under her shirt from behind, I grabbed her neck as gently as possible and pulled her down to my mouth. She came eagerly and moaned even louder as I kissed her and she moved her little butt restlessly against my shaft. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d had a dry-hump session, let alone one I enjoyed so damn much.
I flicked open her bra and moved both my hands on her back, letting the material just hang loose as I curled my fingers around her shoulder then stroked her back again.
After a particularly hard grind, I let out a grunt and hit my head on the wall with a heavy thump as I tore my lips away from hers.
“Fuck, Zoe…”
My eyes slowly opened when I felt her breath against my lips. I swallowed and licked my lips, waiting to see what she’d do. The worst part was, she wasn’t moving on me anymore.
“Dylan,” she whispered before kissing my lips twice. I let her set the pace, and neither one of them lasted more than a few seconds. “My heart beats differently for you. It feels different somehow. I know this probably doesn’t make sense, but…it beats louder, wilder when I see you.” I ran my hands down to her waist and held on tight. She rested her cheek against my temple and rolled her hips. “And I feel like…how am I supposed to keep it in its place? How am I supposed to get used to seeing that smile on your lips? It breaks my brain. You break my brain sometimes—complete mush. Even that first time in the bathroom…though that was just nerves and being horrified, so maybe we can’t count that one…but the second time, when I saw you walking toward me, I just got stuck. How could anyone possibly look away—”
I didn’t let her finish her words; I couldn’t. In seconds I had her on her back and I was hovering over her. It didn’t matter how dark it was; I could picture the look on her face. She was burned into my mind. Those big eyes, that flush on her cheeks—I could see it all.
Not wanting to waste another second, I kissed her again, only pausing when I felt her hands pulling at my shirt. One hand right next to her head, I used the other to reach back, pull it over my head, and fling it away. When I looked down, she was struggling with her own shirt.
“Let me,” I mumbled then helped her take it off, bra and everything.
I couldn’t see her clearly and it frustrated me to no end, but I didn’t think I could untangle myself from her long enough to go get the lights. I settled my hips between her wide open legs, my lips against her already swollen ones as I put my palm on her stomach and moved my hand up, up until I could cup her breast. It was more than a handful, and I couldn’t wait to get a taste—literally.
I started fucking her with the rest of our clothes on, and every moan, every hitch of her breath pushed me to a level where I knew neither one of us would be satisfied with just what we were doing. I groaned quietly over her little moans. It felt so good to finally be able to touch her like this, to feel her like this. When I was a little rough with her breasts and started rolling her nipple between my fingers while I sucked the other one as hard and deep as I could, she gasped and grabbed my head.
I pressed my length harder against her as I moved with deliberate forward motions. Every rock of our hips pushed her a little higher on the bed.
“That feels so good,” she gasped when I was busy kissing her neck and heading for her breasts again. One of her feet was on the bed and she was pushing herself up in time with my forward thrusts as she arched her back.
“Yeah? You’re gonna make me come in my pants,” I groaned, feeling drunk on her. “I don’t remember the last time I did that.” I still had my slacks on over my briefs since I’d fallen asleep as soon as I hit the bed, and all she had on was thin pajama bottoms. She could feel every single inch of me dragging against her pussy. Just in case she needed more, I let go of her breast, her nipple for the first time since I’d gotten her half-naked and pushed my hand under her ass, inside her PJs and panties, pulling her more firmly against me and my dick.
“Jesus,” she groaned, wrapping one of her legs around mine.
Her head was thrown back, and I watched breathlessly as she climbed to her orgasm right in front of my eyes. I picked up my speed.
“Dylan,” she cried in seconds. “Dylan, I’m so close.”
My name on her lips dragged me to an edge. “Come on, baby,” I murmured into her throat as I left small kisses on her hot skin.
Her legs opened wider under me and I squeezed her butt cheek harder.
“Tell me what you need, Zoe.”
“Just you. I just want you.”
“I know, Flash. I know. Tell me what you need so I can make you come.” Breathing in her sweet fruity scent, I licked a trail on her neck over her bruises and sucked her skin, making sure it wasn’t where it would hurt her. She groaned, the sound so low and rough.
“No. No. Stop,” she said suddenly, surprising the shit out of me.
“What?” Dazed, I straightened up, putting a few inches between our chests. I stopped moving against her but didn’t have enough strength to separate us completely. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
Next thing I knew, her hands were on the waist of her PJs and she was trying to wriggle out of them altogether.
Pulling back a little, I asked, “What are you doing?”
“I want to come when you’re inside me, Dylan, and I think I might actually die if you’re not in me within the next minute or so. No, I’m not being dramatic at all, so come on—lose the pants, get naked.”
The last thing I was expecting to do at that moment was laugh, but I did just that.
Zoe managed to wiggle herself halfway out of her PJs but was having trouble untangling her legs because I was still hovering over her. I helped her pull them the rest of the way off and had to steady myself after for a second or two. I ran my hand all the way up to her thighs then down to her ankle. I loved her legs. I’d spent weeks watching those smooth legs and imagining them wrapped around me as I fucked her and she begged me for more.
“I don’t think you can do what I want you to do with those pants on, Dylan,” she murmured when I just stood on my knees like an idiot and moved my hands all over her. I reached for the hand she was busy clutching the sheets with.
“Just a minute,” I murmured then wound her legs around my waist and settled between her naked legs, my shaft pressing and pressing right over her clit. I just wanted to feel her heat. “Get me naked then.”
“Shit,” she mumbled, her hands moving over my chest and curling around my shoulders. Then they traveled lower as I leaned over her, kissing and sucking her parted lips. Her legs dropped from around me.
I lifted my hips enough so she could lower my pants without trouble then I looked down between us to see the head of my dick make an appearance. If she touched me, she’d feel I was already leaking pre-cum. She pushed a little up and lowered my pants a few inches more, freeing my entire length. It bobbed between us, the tip touching her stomach.
“Now that you took it out, what are you planning on doing?” I asked in a rough voice. I rested my forearms on either side of her face and looked down at her. I could just imagine her biting her lip and looking unsure.
Instead of hearing words, I felt her fingers wrap around my hard, swollen length, nothing unsure about her touch at all. I twitched in her hand and felt her thumb brush the wetness down and around me. My heart hammering in my chest, I moved my hand lower, slid it all the way down, dragging my palm against every inch until I felt her wetness on my fingers, and that was it for me. I was gone.
“Condom,” I said, my mind working just enough to remember that we needed condoms—lots of them. “Condoms. I don’t have condoms, Zoe.”
Her hand stopped moving on me, but she didn’t pull it away.
“What?”
I slammed my hand on the bed and dropped my face on her neck. I licked and bit her earlobe before I spoke because I couldn’t quite stop myself. “I don’t have any condoms.”
“I do!” she half yelled, and then her hand wasn’t pulling on my dick anymore. “I do. One—I have one.”
She let go of my dick, slid out from under me, hesitated, then grabbed the pillow and hugged it to her perfect naked body before jumping up and running out of my room. Seconds later she was back, and I was sitting on the edge of the bed, my fingers itching to touch her, to pull her, to keep her.
“What’s up with that?” I managed to ask as I gestured toward the pillow, my dick painfully hard, and even more painfully ready.
I offered her my hand and she took it without hesitation. With my other hand, I grabbed the pillow away and threw it back on the bed.
“Dylan…”
“It’s already too dark in here as it is. Don’t hide yourself from me, Zoe, not anymore.” I gave her a gentle pull and she climbed into my lap.
“Here,” she said, handing me the condom after sitting on my thighs. “I just have this one.” She paused. “Jared gave it to me, just in case.”
“Just in case what?”
She shrugged. “Just in case you and I…As a joke.”
“Fucked. Are you too shy to say fuck?”
“Just in case you and I had sex.”
“Fuck sounds better to me.”
“Fine, fuck then.”
I chuckled and kissed her. Her arms slowly wrapped around my neck as she melted against me.
“I want to watch you put it on,” she said against my lips.
“Whatever you want, just tell me and it’s yours.”
She worried her bottom lip between her teeth and tilted her head down to watch me as I worked it over my length as fast as humanly possible.
I lost patience somewhere along the way so I lifted her off my lap and dropped her back on the bed with a bounce right before climbing on top of her. “I need you so bad, Zoe. I can’t look at you any longer and not know how it feels to sink into you.”
She pulled my head down and went for my lips. Keeping our chests apart, I reached between us and went to feel the wetness between her legs.
“Shit, Zoe,” I hissed, resting my forehead against hers. “You’re all ready for me, aren’t you?”
“I’ve been trying to tell—”
I pushed two of my fingers inside her and she stilled under me, her legs tense, her fingers digging into the skin of my arms. She was dripping. After a few shallow thrusts, I tugged them out and dragged her wetness over her clit, stroking and swirling. Her hips were restless under me, demanding, her hands still on my skin, her touch searing.
I leaned down and whispered against the shell of her ear. “I need you so bad, Zoe.”
“Please…Dylan, please.”
I took her at her word and wrapped my hand around the base of my dick so I could slowly slid inside until she had all of me. It took a few seconds and a few sexy grunts and gasps from her as she arched under me, but I was all in and nothing had ever felt so tight, so right, so utterly…mine.
I wanted to fuck her till the morning light streamed in and I could memorize every dip and curve of her skin. Feeling a little dizzy, I pulled out until she had just the wide head inside her then pushed it all the way back in. I dropped back on my forearms and finally started fucking her with a slow rhythm.
A small moan slipped from her lips and I bent down to capture it with my mouth. I wanted all of her moans, all her sighs and gasps. I wanted everything from her.
“I’m going to take everything from you,” I whispered against her skin. It was only fair to let her know.
“Good,” she answered. Her hands cupped my face, and I could feel her staring straight into my eyes as I moved inside her with hard, shallow strokes. “Great even.” Another grunt after a particularly hard thrust. “As long as you give me everything of yourself.”
“You already have me, baby.”
After that, it was all lost in a frenzy. I was lost in her. I grasped one of her legs and pulled it high up around my waist so I could get even deeper. When my movements picked up speed, so did the soft noises she was making. She clutched at my biceps, squeezing and pulling and cursing when I went especially deep and fast. Then she was arching, her breasts protruding, offered to me so sweetly, and I was tasting her.
Grunting.
Breathless.
Gone.
“You’re driving me crazy,” I gasped, my heart beating like crazy in my chest, having trouble keeping up with us. The sound of our skin slapping with each thrust was the best sound I would ever hear in my life.
“You feel so big inside me,” Zoe gasped, bringing my attention from her breasts to her swollen lips.
I slowed down my thrusts and kissed her lazily, sucking on her tongue, dragging my cock out of her as slowly as possible and then pushing it all the way back in.
“Too much?”
Biting her lip, she shook her head.
“Does it feel good?”
“I want to come,” was her answer as her fingers closed tighter around my arms. “I want to come on you,” she repeated, her voice all hoarse and breathy. I kissed the edge of her lips.
“Tell me. Say it out loud. I want to hear. Does it feel good?”
She put her palm on my cheek before she gave me an answer.
“It feels amazing. It feels like I’m going to explode.” A gasp. A moan. “You feel amazing, love it, but I want to come. It…doesn’t happen every time for me, but it’s so close, I can feel it. I want you to make me come. Please make me come on you.”
With a challenge like that, what else could I possibly do?
I got up on my knees, dragged her legs over my thighs, and tugged her even closer with my hands on her hips then started fucking her like there was no tomorrow. She pushed herself down on me, her hands braced against the headboard, and I could feel her slowly tightening around me, her legs squeezing, her whimpers louder.
“Zoe,” I hissed out. “Zoe, you feel so fucking good around my cock, squeezing me like that. Look at you, all ready to let go and come all over me.”
Then her orgasm took over and she tried to pull her legs closed from around me, but I held them open and kept pumping into her until she went straight over and gasped, almost soundlessly, and then she came with her mouth open, her body arched, her breath lost.
Watching her face, watching her breasts move with the force of my thrusts, I knew I couldn’t hold back any longer. I was so goddamn deep in her, and she was so goddamn tight that I didn’t know if I could ever stop.
My blood hummed in my veins and my spine tingled.
Zoe stopped coming and found her breath as my name spilled from her lips again. She reached up and ran her hands across my chest and stomach, making me shiver. I didn’t know how long I could keep moving inside her, but I was getting close to losing my mind.
“I can’t,” I forced out. She was burning me inside out and I had no idea why I was trying so hard to keep going instead of letting go.
“Don’t,” she whispered, pulling me down against her skin. We were both covered in sweat, and feeling her boobs pressed against me, her strong heartbeat, her scent, her breathlessness…none of it was helping things at all.
The headboard was hitting the wall with every single thrust, and both Zoe and I were moaning through every second. I felt her tighten around me again and she cried out, coming again, her hips moving, her arms around me, holding on to me. She hid her face in my neck and got incredibly tight and wet around me.
“Look at me,” I moaned with urgency. “Zoe, look at me.”
Breathless, she dropped her head back on the pillow and our eyes met in the dark. With a groan of my own, I took her lips and buried myself to the hilt, again and again. I kissed her as deeply as I could, our heads moving and tilting, and spilled myself inside of her in a rush like I had never felt before. I came, but it felt different, like it had been ripped out from somewhere deep inside me, like what we did in that damn tiny bed was something much more than just having sex, more like an exorcism.
When I could see and hear again, I found myself still moving inside her gently, slowly sinking in as deep as I could go. I never took my lips off of hers. I kept kissing her until we couldn’t anymore. My hands never stopped roaming her skin, memorizing. I could have kissed her like that for hours, for days, years. When it felt like I would die if I kept moving, I dropped half on top of her and tried to catch my breath.
“Fuck. I think you broke me,” I muttered into the pillow. “Let’s do that again.”
She laughed, the soft sound giving me shivers.
I pulled out and stepped away from her to get rid of the condom. When I came back, she was pulling the sheets over herself, hiding again.
Slipping under the covers, I put my hand behind her waist and pulled her flush against my chest as my dick lay half hard, half soft between us.
“Don’t hide yourself from me,” I said quietly. “Please.”
“I’m not,” she whispered back.
I brushed her messy hair back away from her face and stared at her for a moment. “Zoe, that was the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” I pressed a kiss to her swollen lips and when she parted them, I went in for a longer one without hesitation. When we stopped, she sighed and pressed her forehead to my shoulder, right under my chin. I kept going. “It feels like I’ve been waiting for this to happen all my life, waiting for you to happen.”
I caressed her back, up and down, up and down until she looked back up at me.
“That was intense. I’ve never done that before. The…coming twice thing, I mean. I think I was too wet. Is that even normal?”
“I think it’s our normal. Was it too much?” I frowned down at her. “Did I hurt you or something? Your neck?”
She shook her head. “No. No, it’s not that. I’ve just never felt like that, so…crazy. I just wanted you deeper and deeper even though it felt like you were all the way in there…you know.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. I tried to go easier, but it wasn’t happening.” I kissed her forehead and closed my eyes. “We should get a little more sleep, Flash. Tomorrow is gonna be another tough day for you.”
She sighed and snuggled in closer. “I can sleep with you?”
“Just try to get away from me.”
She seemed to settle in after that and we fell silent.
I was about to doze off with her in my arms when she spoke up quietly. “Dylan.”
Suddenly, I was wide awake. Still, based on her tone, that conversation was not one I was ready to have just then, not when I could still feel her tightening and pulsing around my dick.
“Not now,” I said shortly.
“I think we—”
“No, not tonight, not after I just had you. We’ll talk tomorrow or the day after. Then we’ll move out as fast as possible.”
“Move out? What are you talk—”
I gave her a squeeze and she stopped. I looked down and met her confused gaze. “We can’t stay here, in his apartment. I won’t.”
Her frown only deepened until understanding dawned on her and she started shaking her head.
“No, Dylan. I mean, yeah, but—”
I kissed her lips, cutting her off, because I couldn’t help myself.
“Not tonight. Please.”
“But you need to know. There are things—”
“I’ll know everything tomorrow or the next day. Just give me one more day, okay? Just us, you and me, no one else. Nothing else between us.”
She stared into my eyes for a few more beats then exhaled a burst of air and nodded.
More seconds ticked by and I couldn’t fall asleep. I cleared my throat. “By the way, you kissed me. You lost the bet you were so sure you would never lose.”
Her head shot up, hitting me under my chin. “I didn’t! You kissed me!”
“I don’t think so. You went for it first.”
“No. That doesn’t count. You kissed me first.”
I had the biggest grin on my face when I finally fell asleep after arguing with her about who had lost the best. In the end, I’d gotten her, in every sense of the word—only I had no idea none of it would matter the next day, not after the way she broke my heart.