Page 10 of Speed Crush

He’s looking at me like I’m something to be studied. Unwrapped. Maybe devoured.

I should get up. Ishould.

Instead, I breathe.

And so does he.

And before I can blink—he leans in.

His hand slides back to my waist to pull me closer.

His mouth finds mine.

It’s not tentative. It’s not polite.

It’s heat and pressure and demand all wrapped into a kiss that shouldn’t be happening.

I freeze. Just for a second. But my body seems to know what to do before my mind can argue.

My mouth parts instinctively. I kiss him back—immediately, hungrily. The pressure of his lips, the scrape of his stubble, the warm slide of his thumb at my waist—it all crashes over me.

My whole body ignites like a live wire. None of my inexperience showing—not that he’d know. But I do. I’ve never done this. Never kissed like this. Never wanted like this.

It’s instant arousal. Sharp, consuming. I can’t think. I don’t want to.

For a long five seconds or maybe thirty, I let myself feel it.

The firm line of his lips, the way his thumb presses just enough. The slow intrusion of his tongue—searching, insistent, unhurried like he wants to take pieces of me with him, drawing me out and pulling me under all at once. The taste of something dark and addictive—like dark chocolate caramel. Then I hear it—my own soft moan, quiet and raw, slipping out before I can stop it.

What am I doing? What is this? I want to keep going—but not like this. Not in the shadows. Not while I can’t think straight.

So, I shove him.

Hard.

He stumbles back on his heels, one hand bracing behind him on the floor for balance, chest rising.

We stare at each other.

He looks wild.Hungry.

“You don’t even know me,” I breathe, fingers brushing my lips like I’m trying to chase the heat he left behind. They still buzz, swollen and stunned, as if his mouth rewired something in me.

“That’s the problem we should fix,” he growls, voice thick with something that makes my stomach clench—frustration, desire, maybe both.

My feet move before my brain catches up.

Fast. Reeling. Every nerve still on fire. My lips still tingling. My thoughts scrambled. I don’t look back—I can’t. Not when I’m this breathless.

Out the back door, into the freezing night air, where the snow still floats lazy and soft around the edges of the parking lot.

I’m in my car before I register, the keys in my hand.

My heart is sprinting as I start driving. And my brain?

It’s somewhere between a meltdown and a malfunction. Trying to rationalize what just happened. Maybe it was the couple going at it.Thatkiss was not supposed to happen.

Not with him.

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