“Try not to.”
I let out a small breath, my hands still resting against his chest, feeling the steady strength of him beneath my palms.
“I just—”
The words didn’t come, and before I could find them, before I could push past whatever hesitation had taken hold, Keegan closed the distance.
The kiss wasn’t hesitant. It was warm and certain.
My breath caught for a second, and then I leaned into it without thinking, my fingers curling slightly against his shirt as everything else fell away for just a moment.
Just long enough to forget the stone.
The Priestess.
And just long enough to feel something that didn’t come with a weight attached to it.
“Maeve—” Keegan’s voice was low as our kiss lingered.
“Oh, good. You’re both out here—” Stella’s voice cut through the moment so cleanly that I jerked back before I even realized I had moved.
My heart jumped straight into my throat as Keegan took a step back, his hand dropping from my waist like he’d been caught doing something he absolutely had been.
Twobble crashed into Stella from behind with a soft grunt. “I told you not to announce it like that—oh—oh wow! This is…this is a moment.”
“Twobble,” Stella said, though there was a hint of amusement in her voice as her gaze flicked between us.
“I can go,” Twobble added quickly. “We can both go. We didn’t see anything. I saw nothing. Absolutely nothing. I got your back, Maeve.”
“You are still standing here,” Stella pointed out.
“Yes, but mentally I have left,” he replied.
Heat rushed to my cheeks, and I glanced at Keegan, who looked just as caught off guard, though there was something in his expression that hadn’t been there before, something softer, something that hadn’t faded even with the interruption.
Stella cleared her throat lightly. “We’ll… give you a moment.”
“Yes,” Twobble agreed, already backing away. “A full moment. Possibly two.”
“Go,” Keegan said, his voice low but steady.
They didn’t need to be told twice.
Twobble turned and practically tripped over himself heading back toward the doors, Stella following at a far more composed pace, though I caught the smallest hint of a smile on her lips before she disappeared inside.
The quiet settled again, but it wasn’t as quiet as before.
I pressed my lips together as I tried to regain some semblance of composure.
“Well,” I said softly.
Keegan let out a small laugh, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah.”
Neither of us moved right away, and then his gaze shifted back to me, steady, focused in a way that made my pulse pick up all over again.
“You were going to ask me something,” he said.
Right.
