James scrambled, got his feet under him, and bolted for the door, hauling it open and disappearing into the hallway without looking back.
I stood there, chest heaving, my hands still curled like I was ready to fight air itself.
The apartment was wrecked in every sense. Furniture skewed. Glass on the floor. My heart hammering so hard it drowned out everything else.
Nicole was suddenly in front of me.
“Are you okay?” she asked, voice breaking as her hands skimmed over my arms, my ribs, my shoulders, checking, frantic. “Did he hurt you?”
That was it. That was the last thread holding anything back, and it severed.
One second she was hovering in front of me, all wide eyes and shaking hands, and the next I had her pulled tight against my chest. She gasped, fingers clutching at my bare arms, and I didn’t give myself time to think.
I kissed her.
19
Nicole
The kiss didn’t slow. It deepened.
It turned hungry and breathless and a little unhinged, like we’d both finally lost the fight we’d been waging for months and decided to enjoy the fall.
Landon’s mouth moved against mine with purpose, not rushed but relentless, like he was afraid if he let go for even a second I’d disappear. Our breaths tangled, warm and uneven, noses bumping, lips parting again and again even when my lungs were screaming for air. Every time I tried to pull back just enough to breathe, he followed, chasing my mouth, refusing to let the connection break.
I’d wanted this for so long. Longer than I’d admitted to myself.
Kissing him like this felt like relief. Like something inside my chest finally unclenching. Like my body had been waiting for permission and someone had finally said yes.
My hands were everywhere. In his hair, gripping at the back of his neck, sliding over his shoulders like I needed to map him, confirm he was real. His hands were just as greedy, skimming my waist, my back, my sides, fingers splaying wide like hecouldn’t get enough of the fact that I was here, that this was happening.
He made a low sound against my mouth when my fingers tightened in his shirt, and that did something dangerous to me. I kissed him harder, softer, slower, messier, learning the shape of his mouth in real time, tongues brushing, breaths stuttering. It was clumsy and perfect and so intenselyusit almost hurt.
Landon started walking me backward without breaking the kiss.
We bumped into the remains of my coffee table. I laughed into his mouth, the sound swallowed immediately as he kissed me again, smiling against my lips like he felt it too. His steps were awkward, determined, his hands firm at my back as he guided me, like he’d decided where this was going and nothing short of a wall would stop him.
I didn’t want him to.
My calves hit the couch and I barely had time to register it before we were tumbling down together, landing in a heap of limbs and breathless laughter and still-kissing mouths. The cushions dipped beneath us, the room spinning just enough to make everything else fade away.
All I knew was his weight braced over me, his mouth still on mine, and the overwhelming, undeniable truth pulsing through me—
We’d finally crossed the line.
And neither of us had any intention of going back.
He began to hike up the oversized t-shirt I was wearing, and explored the skin beneath it. The palms of his hands were large, rough, and warm as he rested them against my bare waist, his fingers delicately tracing the edge of my sensible cotton underwear that I usually picked out for bedtime.
His hand floated over them, and he realized with a guttural groan that they were already damp with arousal. He plunged his tongue into my mouth again, taking back some semblance of control as he pushed me back into the pillows of the couch.
“God, Nicole. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this,” he said, kissing my neck in between his frantic words. My head fell to the side, involuntary moans escaping my mouth as I continued to melt into his arms, into him as a whole.
My breath stuttered, and I managed to regain some of my restraint. Ready to tease him. Ready to have my way with the promising bulge in his pants.
“Wait. Sit up.”
Landon’s brows furrowed in confusion, but when I placed my hands on his chest, he obeyed and rocked back on his knees. I gripped the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head to be discarded in the broken and battered pieces littering my apartment floor.
