“Yeah. Yeah, it’s nothing.”
Don’t touch her. Don’t touch her. You need to talk about this first.
When their eyes met, her expression shifted from concern to vulnerability. He’d never seen her look at him like that before, completely unguarded, a little afraid.
His stomach twisted. She was definitely about to tell him she regretted it, that they should forget the whole thing.
Without breaking eye contact, she moved toward him, her gaze pinning him to the spot, and before he knew it, Jesus fucking Christ, she was touching him, taking his injured hand andbringing it to her mouth, pressing her lips against the forming bruise. He knew he was imagining it, but it really did feel like the pain subsided a bit, warmth spreading from the spot her lips touched his skin like an electrical current.
He let out a hard, involuntary exhale, and it was like all his resolve left his body along with it, his hand moving from her lips to stroke her cheek and cup her jaw, his other arm sliding around her waist to pull her closer—but he didn’t even need to, because she was leaning into him all on her own, her mouth meeting his without hesitation.
It was less desperate, this kiss, but somehow more satisfying. A different kind of thrill—the confirmation that last night hadn’t been a fluke, that his jackhammering pulse wasn’t just from the shock and impossibility of it happening at all, that even dead sober she was wrapping her arms around his neck, her body melting against his, her mouth opening to him with a soft sigh.
“Sorry,” she breathed against his lips when they pulled apart for air.
“Why?”
“I didn’t come here to do this,” she said, sliding her fingers through his curls, tilting her face to meet his again.
It took everything in him to disentangle himself and step back. A crease of disappointment crossed her brow, then smoothed itself out again.
“So, what, then?” His voice was husky, betraying how shaken he was, and he cleared his throat. He crossed his arms over his chest to appear stoic and unmoved but winced at the reminder of his injured hand.
Merritt took a step back, too, mirroring his crossed arms. “I just…” Her gaze fell to her feet, and she swallowed. “I don’t think we…it’s not…I mean, I want to. Clearly.” She let outa shaky laugh, smoothing a hand over her flushed face. “But it’s not a good idea.”
Niko was silent for a beat, letting her incomplete sentences wash over him and form one clear message. “Why not? Because I’m working for you?”
“Yeah.”
“And because Dev and Olivia are against it?” Merritt didn’t flinch at the mention, so it was clear they’d brought it up to her, too. Out of the four of them, Niko seemed to be the only one who didn’t fully understand their objections.
“Yeah. I mean, no. But kind of, yeah.” She pulled her braid over her shoulder, toying with it, her gaze shifting back and forth from his face to a spot somewhere behind him. “And I…it’s me, too. I’m in kind of a weird place right now. I’m scared I’m going to…” She trailed off, uncertain, seemingly lost in her own world.
“…Steal my lightbulbs?” he finished, once it was clear she wasn’t going to. She met his gaze with a startled expression before cracking a rueful smile.
“Something like that.”
Niko shifted his weight, rubbing his chest absentmindedly, like that would dissolve the knot of disappointment forming beneath it.
“I get it,” he said, sounding almost convincing. “It’s hard, a town this small. Before Helene and A.J. left…it felt like I couldn’t escape them.”
“Because you all lived together?”
He shook his head. “After we broke up, they got another place for a while before they moved away. But it didn’t matter. I still ran into them every day, pretty much. It was really…yeah. I don’t know if I can go through that again.” He left out theunspokenbut—that, for her, he would’ve been reckless enough to try.
Her eyes were fixed on him now, her gaze probing. “And you haven’t dated anyone since them?”
He brought a shoulder up in a half shrug. “Just casually. Usually people who were passing through, not planning to stay very long.”
She nodded slowly. “I haven’t…it’s been a long time for me, too. I’ve always had a hard time being single. I would just…fall into things, and they would take over my whole life. I’d get so lost in the other person. That was one of my promises to myself, when I moved here. I wanted to learn who I was outside of a relationship.”
“And who are you?”
She blinked, then glanced away for a long time. “I think I might be someone who can’t stop making mistakes,” she said quietly, meeting his eyes again.
So shedidthink last night was a mistake.
It felt like she’d reached directly into his abdomen and given all his organs a violent squeeze.
