He swallows. I hear it. Feel it.
“If you keep looking and smelling and being like this…” His breath shivers. “I’m not going to make it to dinner.”
Oh.
Oh.
I’ve been saying and thinking ‘oh’ a lot lately. My breath tangles in my throat.
“Is that a bad thing?” I whisper.
He huffs a quiet, shaky laugh. “It’s complicated.”
“Complicated good or complicated bad?”
He leans closer, forehead nearly touching mine. “Good,” he says, voice ragged. “Really fucking good.”
My knees threaten mutiny.
His thumb strokes my waist again, and the world narrows so sharply that I feel weightless.
“I’m not fragile,” I whisper before I can stop myself.
“I know,” he says hoarsely. “God, Violet, I know.”
I inhale shakily, and he steps back half an inch, but the absence knocks into me like a cool gust of air, and the tension between us vibrates like a bowstring pulled too tight.
He squeezes my hand. “Ready?”
I steady my breath, raise my chin, and choose bravery. “Lead the way.”
He does, but not before guiding my hand back to his chest for one more heartbeat. One more shared breath. One more promise in the dark.
The kind that feels like the beginning of something neither of us is ready for…
But both of us want it anyway.
Chapter 18
Jason
Idon’t breathe for the first ten seconds she stands in front of me.
I can’t.
Because if I do, I’ll breathe her in… her unique scent of citrus and the soft floral shampoo she uses, and something delicate beneath it—something that is her and no one else. And she’s dressed up, not fancy, but intentionally. Like this date matters.
Like I matter.
That’s enough to make my chest ache.
“Ready?” I ask, keeping my voice light so she doesn’t hear the way my pulse is hammering.
She nods shyly and reaches for my hand. I take it, not too fast, not too tight, but my insides are clenched with desire.
“Lead the way,” she whispers.
God. If only she knew how those words feel coming from her.
