She tripped backward with a yelp, and a squirrel shot across the trail between us.I caught her automatically before she hit the ground, and then neither of us moved.
My hands locked around her waist, and her palms flattened against my chest.The squirrel disappeared into the trees while the entire damn world seemed to narrow to just us standing there breathing too close together.
Her eyes lifted slowly to mine.
“You okay?”I asked roughly.
“A squirrel almost took me out,” she whispered.
I didn’t laugh, not with the way she was looking at me.Not with the way her body fit against mine.
She cleared her throat slightly and tried to step back.I tightened my hold before I could stop myself.
Her breath caught.“Push…”
“Do you always crack jokes when things get serious?”
Her eyes searched mine.“Usually.”
“Why?”
“Because if I stop joking, then I have to actually deal with things.”The honesty in that hit hard.
We stood there staring at each other while the woods moved softly around us.
No haunted house sounds.No club.Just us.
“You scared me yesterday,” I admitted quietly.
“I know.”
“And today.”
Her expression softened slightly.“I’m still here.”
“Yeah.”
Something shifted between us then.
Not playful anymore or teasing, just real.
I looked at her mouth, then back at her eyes.“I’m gonna kiss you,” I said.
Her breath hitched slightly, but she nodded.
That was all it took.I kissed her slowly at first.Tentative.Testing.
McKayla made the softest sound against my mouth, and it wrecked every bit of control I had left.
My hand slid up into her hair while I deepened the kiss carefully but firmly, taking the lead immediately because she tasted like nervousness and stubbornness and every damn thing that had been getting under my skin for days.
She kissed me back hard enough to surprise me.
Not shy.Not hesitant.Her fingers curled tighter against my chest while I pulled her closer, and for a second I forgot entirely about dead bodies, missing sisters, haunted islands, and countdown dates.
There was just her.
Then she pulled back suddenly, breathing harder.Her cheeks were flushed pink, and her eyes were wide.“Well,” she said breathlessly.“That happened.”
