Page 42 of The Break Down

“What was it then?”

He leans in, voice going rough.

“You let me touch you, Red. You let me come all over you. Everything is different now. Do you understand?”

I swallow hard, every nerve ending tingling.

But I shake my head.

“Different how?”

“First, I need to know,” he says. “Was it just heat for you? Just the moment? Or did it mean something?”

He’s giving me a choice.

Giving me a way out.

But as I look up at him, this man who touched me like I was his whole fucking world, who’s now standing in front of me like he’ll break if I say the wrong thing, and I realize something else.

I don’t want out.

“I don’t do casual well,” I whisper. “I never have. And last night? That wasn’t casual, Koa. That meantsomething. Didn’t it?”

His jaw flexes. His hands curl into fists at his sides.

“Yeah, Red. It did.”

Then he reaches for me. It’s rough, possessive, urgent, and he crushes his mouth to mine.

Koa’s kiss sparks something inside of me.

Not just butterflies or tingles.

No, this is something deeper. Hotter. Wilder.

Like my every cell is suddenly alive, tuned to the exact frequency of him.

His mouth.

His heat.

His hands that cradle my jaw like I’m something precious and breakable—which is ironic, considering I’m already falling apart in his arms.

When he slows the kiss, when his lips pull back just a breath, I chase him.

Like a puppy begging for a treat.

A hit. A fix.

Which, let’s be honest—he is.

And that’s when he drops the bomb.

“Go out with me,” he says, voice low and rough, still tasting like want.

I blink up at him, dazed. “What?”

“Dinner. Right now. You and me.”

---