Page 16 of Every Heartbeat After

I’m on the edge of a very thin rope, barely listening to the voice in my head that tells me this is a bad idea when her tongue glances over her full bottom lip, testing my control.

One touch. How much harm could it really do? I raise my hand slowly, like she’s a cornered animal and I only want to offer her safety. She doesn’t blink. Doesn’t breathe. I brush the backs of my fingers over her cheek, from apple to hollow to jaw. Soft. So fucking soft.

She sinks into it, and that is my final undoing.

“I’m going to kiss you, Tess.” My voice is all rasp. Desire has scraped my throat raw.

Her heavy gaze locks with mine. “That a threat or a promise?”

I don’t honor that with a response. Instead I tangle my hands in her hair the way I’ve wanted to since the moment I laid eyes on her. She surges upward at the same time I lean in. When we meet in the middle, the taste of vanilla floods my senses, andplainis the last word I’d use to describe it.

Our tongues brush, and she gasps. I take the opportunity to delve deeper, go harder, exploring until I find what makes her go wild. I drag my teeth over her bottom lip, and she throws her arms around my shoulders, clinging to me like I’ll escape somehow otherwise.

Except I couldn’t, even if I wanted to. I’m too damn caught up in this woman. A fact that’ll scare me shitless in the morning, I have no doubt.

I back her into the door of her room and lift, hooking her legs around my hips. Her breasts are soft against my chest, nipples pebbled tight. I no longer care to hide my erection. I hope she feels how hard she makes me. When I roll my hips forward, testing her, her moan is everything I could hope for.

I slip a hand beneath her dress and find lacy underwear cupping her ass. In a stolen moment meant for gasping in air, I meet her gaze with a question in mine.

I watch her come to her senses in real time. I only wish I could say the same for myself.

“You should go,” she whispers, our mouths still so close that her exhale is my inhale.

“Are you sure?” I ask, but I already know. A thousand thoughts glow in the emerald depths of her eyes, but they all lead to one conclusion.

It takes every ounce of strength I have to lock down my raging desire. To lower her to the ground. Straighten her dress. Retrieve her purse from where she dropped it on the ground and pluck her key from the outside pocket, then reach around her to insert it into the door. I push it open behind her, and hold. We’re still so close that her heaving breaths brush her breasts against me. So close that the uncertainty coming off her in waves tastes bitter on my tongue.

She steps backward, once and then again until the doorknob is stolen from my grasp and she’s half-hidden in the shadow of her dark room. A look of shock is frozen on her face. Shock at herself? At me? I have no clue. All I know is that I should’ve shown more restraint. I shouldn’t have pulled over on the sidewalk.

Somehow I can’t bring myself to regret all those shouldn’ts.

“Good night, Tess.” I grab her doorknob once she’s safely inside. “If you want…next time you’re in town…” I press my lips together. She’s stone-still. Expressionless. I nod, leaving my words where they lie. “Sleep well.”

I close the door and walk back to my car, which I drive around the perimeter of the property before leaving, even if leaving is the last thing I want to do. I might as well be on duty for the night, because I don’t rest until the sun rises and exhaustion sweeps over me, finally drowning out thoughts of Tess’s mouth on mine.

ChapterSix

Tess

No,I’m not sure.

That’s what I wanted to say. Words I desperately willed my lips to form, my vocal cords to speak. But self-doubt settled like a cloak over me, and nothing came out. Now Kit’s gone, and all I can think is that I’ve made some kind of mistake.

Whether that was kissing him or letting him leave, I couldn’t say.

What the fuck am I doing?I’m here to spend time with my uncle. To explore what’s left of the family I have in this world. This was not the time for some tryst, no matter how irresistible I find the dark, sarcastic deputy now driving away from me into the night.

I can’t even blame it on being drunk, unless you count my double dose of ice cream today. A sugar high. It still courses through my veins, making my heart beat so fast I can feel the pulsing in my ears. It drowns out everything else. The hum of the AC unit. The distant rumbling of what little traffic is left on the roads. The ringing of my phone in my purse.

Crap.I fumble for it, catching a glimpse of Alicia’s picture before I swipe to accept the call.

“Hello?” I sit at the edge of the saggy motel mattress, sinking into my own bones like I might dissolve entirely. Can my best friend hear how breathless I sound? How freshly kissed?

“I don’t know why I bother texting anymore, when I know you’ll never answer.” Dishes clang in the background. I picture Alicia—dark hair, doe eyes, some vibrant lipstick color despite the fact that she’s just doing late-night chores—bent over the sink of the little cottage in Alabama that she shares with her husband, Destin.

The familiarity eases some of my panic, and I flop onto my back, staring up at the pattern-stamped ceiling. “Sorry. It’s been such a hectic weekend. I haven’t texted anyone back, if that makes you feel any better.”

“It does,” she chirps. “So how’s it going?”

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