The weight of his hand lifts from my shoulder.
A heartbeat after, I feel the threading of his fingers in my hair. His hand forms a loose fist.
Gentle, he tugs my head back.
Tingles spiral down my insides, roping down my body, all the way to my curling toes.
My lips brush over his, parting for his kiss.
His mouth presses against mine.
Then he stills.
I blink, feeling the flutter of my lashes against his.
I think…
I think hehesitates.
Waiting, maybe, to see how I react. If I want this, if I’ll pull away—if I will reject him, even in the shadows.
But I don’t.
I can’t.
Not after his eyes shut when I touched him, like Iaffectedhim.
Eric has never made me feel seen before, adored in secret little moments, needed—but that’s all changed in the blackout.
His breath on my lips, his commanding grip in my hair, the hesitation that steals him, it feels so different to moments we have shared before.
It feels like I could unravel him.
And it’s a fucking rush.
Tilted into him, my weight lifted on the tip of my toes, I part my lips.
I accept him.
He mirrors me, a reflection of my every move, and the moment my tongue rolls over his, something in him snaps.
Darkness billows around me.
I’m spun until my back hits a wall, and his body follows mine, pushing up against me.
I gasp on the choked breath.
He is fast to devour it.
His mouth comes down on mine, and the fresh flavour of spearmint invades me.
The warmth of his soft tongue slips over mine.
I arch into him.
His hand glides up the nape of my neck to my hair, where fingers find the clasps pinning strands in place, then ease them out.
If the blackout didn’t swallow us, I would hear the clasps clanging to the floorboards one by one.
