The word slips out easy, but it lands heavy. “Far away from here.”
He shifts then, rolling toward me.
Now we’re facing each other in the dark.
I can’t see his expression. I don’t know if that’s mercy or punishment.
But he’s close enough that I can feel the heat radiating off his skin, smell that faint mix of his cologne that clings to him. His face is a shadow, unreadable. “Why?”
My mind floods with answers.
Because Gabriel owns half my life.
Because men like you burn everything they touch.
Because staying means choosing something I don’t understand.
And I don’t know how to survive if I start wanting.
None of that comes out.
So I go with the truth that sits deepest, the one that stings to say out loud.
“Because life here hurts. There has to be a place where I’m not in pain.”
The words hang between us. The quiet stretches so thin it might snap. For a second I wonder if I imagined the whole conversation.
I can’t stand the not knowing.
So I reach for him.
My hand finds his chest. Warm. Solid. Alive.
His heart is pounding. Racing.
“Maksim—”
His hand shoots up, fingers gripping my face, urgent.
And then his mouth is on mine.
Hard.
He kisses me like he’s trying to stop something from escaping. My breath disappears. It’s not a kiss; it’s a claim, a storm of teeth and tongue that steals the air from my lungs. His other arm snakes around my waist,pulling me flush against him. His bare skin scorches against mine through my thin tank; and for a split second, everything lifts.
The weight on my chest, the secrets, the doubts, the ache. All gone.
Just heat, just him, just this raw need that surges up and makes my heart... float.
Float?
It’s never done that before. Tears prick at my eyes, hot and confusing, and I don’t get it.
Why now? Whyhim?
I push against his chest, just enough.
He pulls away immediately, breath ragged in the dark. I can’t see his face, but I feel the shift. The wall sliding back into place. The control snapping tight again.
