I slid my hand up the front of his hoodie, and pulled him toward me. The move surprised him. I felt it in the way his body shifted, recalibrating.
He cupped my face in both his hands and when his mouth met mine, I didn’t pause to think about pride or consequences. I kissed him back, finally giving in to the urge I’d been fighting for weeks. Aiden slid his tongue into me again, and I melted into his mouth with a breathless, intoxicated hum.
The air in the unit felt charged by proximity, by unfinished cabinets and half-built dreams, by the knowledge that we were both standing in spaces we’d carved out for survival. Among other things.
His hand returned to my waist, firmer now, and mine moved to the back of his neck, fingers threading into his hair.
The argument didn’t disappear. It folded into the background while our mouths moved with increasing urgency. His hands never stopped exploring my body, and I felt the shift in him from restraint to something less contained.
My inner voice tried to warn me. Tried to remind me of timing, of risk, of everything that came after a moment like this.
But my hands were already holding him.
And I wasn’t stopping.
Not this time.
When his mouth moved against mine again, it wasn’t about winning or proving anything. It was about being here, inside this storage unit filled with his craft, inside the truth we’d just dragged into the light, and choosing it anyway.
I sighed softly into his mouth as my tongue ran along his. It’d been too long since I’d been kissed deeply like this, choosing to keep my attention on work and getting into school instead.
Now that we were alone, I could show him just how much I wanted him, devouring his mouth while my hands roved over his body. Mischievous fingers slid under the hem of his hoodie and shirt, taking ownership of the inked planes beneath.
He chuckled against my mouth, amused by my eagerness. “You’re the most infuriating person I know.”
“You like it.”
“I like you,” he shot back without missing a beat, and found my mouth again, just as hungrily as I did his.
Our teeth clashed as we fought for dominance, devouring each other with a want that was matched in every breath, each stroke of our greedy tongues. Aiden closed his arms around my waist, and I lifted onto my tiptoes, dizzy with the feel of his muscular body pressed so close.
“You have no idea how long I’ve been wanting to do this.” His voice was rough with arousal.
My pulse thundered under the promise of it, my body like static. His mouth ghosted over mine—barely a kiss—more a testament to his earlier confession.
“I really do like you, Sage.”
A soft smile teased on my mouth, and I said, “I really think you’re kind of okay, Aiden.”
The laugh spilled out and mixed together as our lips met again, hard enough to make me gasp with it. My fingers curled into his hair as if I had every right to touch him this way. And maybe I did. Maybe I always had.
Aiden backed me up step by step, our mouths never parting for more than a breath. His hand slid to the small of my back, firm and commanding, guiding me until I met the edge of his workbench. Even then, he didn’t break the kiss. Didn’t say a word. Just pressed closer, caging me in with his body and the bench behind me, as if nothing in the world existed beyond the shape of me in his arms. His lips traced my jaw and neck; his fingers ran down my waist and over my hips.
My thoughts dissolved into heat and want. I met him with equal fervor, lips parting, matching his urgency, my hands roaming his shoulders and chest, memorizing every line, every breath, every desperate sound he made against my mouth.
There was no doubt, no hesitation, no misunderstanding anymore.
We both wanted this.
Enough to ruin us both.
His hand slid to the bench beside me, bracing us, his other still holding me as though he might never let go. Our lips broke onlyfor a heartbeat, breaths tangled, both of us trembling with the weight of whatever we had just unleashed.
I didn’t know if I was ready for it, but it wasn’t as if we’d be stopping now. Not now.
“Sage,” he murmured, voice low.
I smiled against his mouth. “I thought you were done talking…”
