Page 81 of Hard Pass

My pulse spikes. “Cole . . .” But I don’t step away.

I don’t reach for the handle.

Because my body has already made the choice.

He steps into me again, cradling my jaw. “You followed me,” he says quietly.

It’s not a question and somehow this feels more dangerous.

“I was worried about you.” The words are breathless. True.

His jaw tightens. “Worried,” he repeats like the word doesn’t sit right.

I should explain, should justify, but I don’t, because the truth is already between us. I can’t leave.

His hand skims across the side of my waist.

“You shouldn’t have come,” he murmurs.

“I know.”

“But you did anyway.”

“Yes.”

A beat. A breath. A choice.

And then I stop fighting it. Just this once. Just tonight.

I look at him, every nerve in my body alive. Every warning signal blaring but ignored.

“Tell me you want this, Dublin. Tell me—”

“Yes.”

The second the breathless word leaves my lips, everything shifts. His hand tightens. His mouth finds mine again.

And this time, there is no turning back.

We’re a chaotic mess of hands and lips and heat.

Wet fabric clings and slides and tangles between us, making everything harder and slower, but somehow only fuels the urgency.

Because we don’t slow down. We don’t think. And we sure as hell don’t stop.

His kiss is deeper now, rougher, reminding me of what I buried years ago. Something unfinished. Something I told myself I’d forgotten and walked away from.

But I didn’t. God, how I didn’t forget.

My hands slide beneath the soaked fabric of his shirt, pushing it up, needing skin. I need to ground myself in this moment that feels like it’s spinning too fast to control.

He breaks the kiss just long enough to drag his lips over my jaw and down my neck. His breath is hot against my skin despite the chill from being wet.

He helps pull his own shirt over his head, our connection only breaking for the brief moment before we come back together.

My hands roam. Up his back. Over his shoulders. Fingertips trailing down every crevice and dent of sculpted abs and then dip beneath the waistband of his gym shorts.

Thank God for loose shorts.