Page 29 of Max Bannon

I gripped the edge of the truck bed, head hanging.

I kissed her because I couldn’t not kiss her. Because it was the only way I knew to say everything I’d kept locked up inside me.

But walking away?

That was fear.

And now… now I didn’t know if I’d made the biggest mistake of my life.

I didn’t makeit more than ten minutes down the mountain before I turned the truck around.

My hands gripped the wheel, knuckles white as I drove back through the dark, headlights carving a path I knew by heart. I didn’t have a plan. Didn’t have the words. All I knew was I couldn’t leave things the way I had.

I needed to see her.

Not just to explain—but tofeelher. To hold her. To remind myself that I hadn’t imagined the way her breath caught when I kissed her… the way her fingers had twitched like she was about to reach for me and stopped herself.

By the time I pulled into the drive, my pulse was hammering.

Her porch light was still on. She hadn’t gone to bed.

I climbed the steps and knocked once—then opened the door.

She stood there barefoot in the doorway, hair loose and eyes wide like she’d been frozen in place.

I closed the door behind me and stepped forward without a word.

“Tessa,” I breathed. “I don’t want to pretend I’m okay walking away from you.”

She didn’t answer. Didn’t move.

So the one step of space between us and cupped her face like I had earlier. Only this time, I didn’t hesitate.

I kissed her again.

And she kissed me back.

This wasn’t like before. This kiss was hungry, certain. All that heat, all that tension—we didn’t hold it back this time. Her fingers curled in my shirt, tugging me closer, and I couldn’t stop the low sound in my throat when she whispered my name against my lips.

I picked her up, her legs wrapping around my waist, and carried her to the bed like it was the only thing that made sense anymore.

We shed clothes without breaking the connection—like every barrier between us was finally coming down, layer by layer. Her dress hit the floor, my shirt, my jeans. Her skin was warm, soft, and perfect.

And then we weren’t just skin to skin—we wereheart to heart.

It wasn’t fast. It wasn’t just about the fire that had been building between us. It was something deeper.

I slowed everything down. I kissed every inch of her like she was a prayer I never thought I’d get to speak. She touched me like she was learning me, not just with her hands, but with her soul.

“Tessa…” I whispered into the crook of her neck as I moved inside her, slow and steady.

She arched beneath me, breath trembling. “Don’t stop.”

And I didn’t.

We moved together like we’d done this a hundred times in another life. Every moan, every breath, every heartbeat syncing into something that felt more like a homecoming than anything I’d ever known.

When we came undone, it was quiet. Intimate. Like the world had faded away and left only this moment behind.

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