He was wrong—but he also wasn’t. “It wasn’t thousands, but yeah. I did get some people who were…ah…a little lost with their feelings. I was like that too though. In middle school, I was absolutely convinced that Gavin Rossdale just needed to meet me, and he’d fall head over heels in love.”
“Wait, that guy from the ’90s alt-rock band?”
I snorted and shrugged. “Yep. And trust me, it’s embarrassing as fuck to admit that to you, but I’m saying it because I need you to know this feels different.” I shifted away from him just so I could see his face properly. His fingers grazed my jawline before they fell, landing in the open space between us, and I took his wrist, pressing my thumb into his palm. “I don’t know what the fuck any of this means. I don’t know why wemet like this. I don’t have a clue why the universe put you next door to me. But I felt something the night you saved me.”
He let out a trembling breath. “Yeah?”
“It doesn’t make any sense, but right now, we have this, and I want to see where it goes without the world butting in.”
“Our own bubble,” he said, and I laughed.
“Yeah. A gorgeous, tropical bubble with blue water and seven days?—”
“Five,” Ryan said quietly, then bit his lip. “I have five days.”
I felt a little crushed, robbed of more time with him. But it was what it was. “Five days, then, where the real world has ceased to exist.” I closed my eyes, leaning forward until my forehead bumped his. “I was going to spend the anniversary of a very terrible night on my own, hoping I’d get through it without completely breaking down. And then the door to my room opened, and of all fucking people, you were there. I don’t know if it means something. I don’t really believe in that kind of shit. But I’m also not foolish enough to pretend like this isn’t important.”
He was quiet for a long time, and then he touched my chin and lifted me away from him, his gaze locking onto mine. “Five days isn’t enough.”
“It is what it is. And what happens after is what happens after. But if my legs would cooperate right now, I’d get down on my knees and kiss the fucking ground at your feet.”
“You could kiss me instead,” he murmured.
Suddenly, I was profoundly aware of gravity because my body tried to lift off the bed and float above it. But I was pinned by the turn of the earth, by the universe, and by his gorgeous eyes. “I think that’s a fair compromise,” I told him.
His smile lit up his entire face, and he leaned in, touching my jaw again. “Yes?”
“Yes.”
I curled both hands around his jaw, held him tight, then leaned in and took the kiss I’d been desperate to have.
Nine
RYAN
He was kissing me.Iwas kissinghim. Atlas. The man I hadn’t stopped thinking about for an entire year. His hands were rough and calloused, but so fucking careful as they cradled my face. I could smell mint on his breath as he exhaled, and I tasted hints of it as his tongue pushed between my lips and tangled with my own.
He caught my moan and swallowed it down before leaning forward and pressing me hard and possessively against the pillows. Sinking down into the mattress, I was boneless and helpless against his body. The weight of him was maybe the most comforting thing I had ever felt, but the ecstasy of being touched for the first time in so long—and by him, of all people—threatened to have me making a mess of my sweats before we even got started.
I pressed fingers into his ribs and pushed until he eased away.
His eyes were wild, frantic, lips plump and spit-slick as he stared at me. “Am I doing this wrong?”
My laugh was ragged in my chest. “You’re doing it a little too right. I, um…I…it’s been a while, and—” My eyes flicked downward, and he followed my gaze, looking back up at me withan almost feral curl to his half smile. “I don’t want this to be over before it starts.”
“Oh. I see.”
I swallowed heavily, my grip on him going lighter, tracing a touch over his ribs. “Sorry.”
“Don’t you fucking dare apologize,” he growled. His hair had come loose again, the elastic band gone, and his longer, dark locks spilled over his shoulder. He looked wild, and maybe that should have been terrifying, but it just made the problem in my pants worse. “Not for that. I want to make you come.”
I almost swallowed my own tongue. I had half an idea about where this was going, but I didn’t expect him to just say it. “I would, ah…I would be okay with that.”
He huffed a laugh and smiled down at me. “Yeah?”
“Did you think I was going to say no?”
He shrugged and leaned in, taking a taste of the crook of my neck before pulling back with a shuddering sigh. “I wasn’t sure what you were going to say about a total stranger mauling you in his bed.”
