And I don’t let go.
The corridor humswith muffled giggles and shuffling footsteps. Doors click shut one by one, the kind of quiet that means everyone’s disappearing into rooms, and we all know what’s happening in them.
And here I am, playing chaperone to my own hormones.
We stop at my door. For a moment, neither of us moves.
I can feel him watching me. Not hungry. Not impatient. Just… steady. Like he’s giving me every chance to choose.
I turn, my fingers curling around the doorframe. “Well.”
His mouth tips into the ghost of a smile. “Well.”
The silence swells, thick with everything I could do right now.
I could kiss him again. Drag him inside. Press him against the wall until we’re both breathless and figure out whether that kiss was a promise or just foreplay.
I could let myself fall.
And every cell in me wants to.
But Lily’s voice echoes:Just be careful. Not all of them left smiling.
And then Helen’s:We’re regrouping.
And worse:You don’t exactly have the casual physique.
The words are still crawling under my skin, burrowing deep, and suddenly I’m hyper-aware of every inch of me, the way my dress pulls at my waist, how my thighs feel pressed together, how Iprobably don’t look like the kind of woman men risk their exes for.
My chest squeezes until it hurts.
Instead, I do the only thing that doesn’t break me wide open.
I smile. Not breezy. Not brave. Just enough to keep the cracks from showing.
“Thanks for the walk.” My throat’s too tight, so I add, after a beat: “And the dance.”
Something flickers in his eyes, hope, maybe, or disappointment, and it nearly undoes me.
“Anytime,” he murmurs.
He doesn’t step back. Neither do I. The moment holds until it’s almost too much. One more heartbeat and I’ll drag him inside and find out exactly how far this will go.
“Goodnight, Tyler,” I whisper, and close the door between us.
I stay there, forehead pressed against the wood, heart thundering like I just bolted from a burning building.
Because closing that door doesn’t feel like safety.
It feels like punishment.
Chapter 19
Axis Tilt
Tyler
The door clicks shut.
