Lights twinkle.
Branches shimmer.
The ocean reflects the glow like a sapphire stage.
I’m actually… happy.
Warm.
Safe.
Until someone — I suspect Shani, but it might’ve been the carolers — hangs mistletoe over my head.
“OOOOOOH!” Tristan hollers.
But Cannon-with-a-K from school suddenly appears — because apparently EVERYONE from Newport Prep has materialized out of nowhere — and he steps forward like he’s going to kiss me.
Leo moves faster than a storm hitting the cliffs.
“Don’t you dare,” he growls.
Cannon stops dead.
And before anyone can blink, Leo pulls me behind a pine tree, the lights tinting his jaw gold and green.
His breath clouds in the cold between us.
“I’m not going to kiss you,” he whispers.
My heart skids.
“Not here. Not in front of everyone.”
His voice drops to something molten:
“But the next time we do kiss…
it’ll be because you agree to be my girl again.”
Heat hits my chest like a flare.
“The next time our lips meet,” he murmurs, “and our tongues twine… and our hearts beat as one…”
He steps closer — but not touching.
Never touching.
“…it’ll be because nothing stands between us. No secrets. No lies. No money. No rumors. No fear.”
The ocean wind whips around us.
“Nothing,” he finishes. “And no one.”
I can’t breathe.
I can’t think.
I can onlyfeel.
