I’d refused him until he’d mentioned an ounce of solid hidden under the sink. Smoking brain-twisting skunk was off limits until the world either ended or became a place I’d only seen in my dreams, but I needed the hit of mellow hash like I needed fucking air.
Like I needed Embry.
Something in my chest gave way, the permanent tension banded around my diaphragm easing a touch until I realised he was already backing up.
Alreadyleaving.
Embry disappeared. For a split second, I truly believed my insomniac brain had imagined his searing presence in Rubi’s dark kitchen. Then I was in motion, chasing him down the hall. “Wait. Don’t go.”
My voice was raspy and weak. How I felt inside as Embry reached the front door and gripped the solid wood. “Please, Em.”
The door slammed shut.
I closed my eyes, covering my face with my hands as dizziness set in and I sank to a crouch. I didn’t blame him for taking one look at me and walking out, but it hurt so much, and I was so tired of this fucking pain.
“Hey.” Strong, electric fingers hooked around mine, pressure and heat mounting as they attempted to rescue my face. “Look at me.”
Nope. Not happening. Looking at him meant acknowledging that it had been so long since I’d eaten or slept that I was seeing shit that wasn’t there, and I wasn’t ready for that. I wanted to bottle his flashing stare and keep it forever. Not let it go the moment I opened my damn eyes.
“Mateo.”
My agency evaporated. Imaginary Embryrippedmy hands away and shoved me, toppling me onto my back. I hit the wood floor with a grunt, but there was no time to catch my breath before his hot mouth seared to mine and stole every ounce of oxygen I had left.
His kiss was life, and I was drowning.
I let him in, falling slack against the floor as he pushed my hair back with one hand and pressed hard into my aching chest with the other, kickstarting my sluggish pulse until it took flight.
Head spinning, I hooked a leg around the lean, hard body above me, tethering it to me as if I could stop it fading to nothing when I returned to earth. My body came alive, fighting the inevitable. And I let it, not caring if it fucking killed me.
“Mateo.” His voice reached me, gravelled and stern between kisses. “It’s really me, I promise.”
It’s not.
“It is.”
Embry’s kiss evaporated. The hand on my chest gripped my chin. “Look at me,” he said again.
No.
“Lookat me.”
I forced my eyes open. In the shadows of the dark hallway, Embry stared back at me, eyes wide, hair mussed, lips swollen and wet. “I’m real. But you look half dead, so maybe it’s me that should be questioning reality.”
My heart thudded against my ribcage, faculties slowly returning to me.
The hard wood beneath me made itself known. So did the bulge in my jeans and Embry’s cock digging a hole in my leg.
Okay, maybe I wasn’t hallucinating. Maybe I was dreaming, cos this shit was gold star perfect.
I let out a shaky breath. Embry stroked my face with the pad of his thumb, then let me go, sliding off me just enough to grab my hands and haul me to my feet.
My balance was shit. He steadied me, his gaze bleeding concern. “You with me?”
I hadn’t been without him since we’d met. Not really, even if his absence for the lastfour fucking weekshad obliterated my sanity, my only fucking comfort that he was with her.
Liliana.
If she was my reason for living, he was the glue holding me together.
