Page 58 of Steal My Breath Away

“Do you want to go for a walk on the beach?” Ace asked.

A tremor ripped through my body. I don’t know if it was his tone, or his words, or the fact that this was D-night, but after years of crushing on him despite knowing he didn’t want me, my dreams were suddenly coming true.

“I should keep an eye on Paige.” I wanted to go with him. So desperately that I could taste it. But I got bad vibes from Lucas, and I couldn’t leave her alone.

“Then I guess we’re dancing.” He dropped his hands to my hips and pulled me close.

“We’re dancing.” I repeated the words so that I would remember them, remember how he pulled my body against his, how his hands felt on my hips, how I could feel his heat as he moved against me.

It was heaven. It was hell. It was everything in between. I closed my eyes and let the rhythm find me, dancing in time to the pulseof arousal between my legs in a magically reversed night when anything was possible.

Stay cool. Ace is dancing with you. He probably felt sorry for you because Matt’s leaving again, and you were standing here alone while Paige is having fun with Lucas.

Ace’s arms tightened around my waist, and he drew me closer. I could feel the hard muscles of his chest, the ridges of his six-pack, and the unmistakable press of his erection against my hips. I slid my arms over his shoulders and rocked gently against him.

Ace groaned so softly I almost wondered if I’d heard it. He liked the feel of me against him. He liked it enough to risk Matt’s wrath.

“Haley.” My name was a whisper on his lips, a deep rumble in his chest. The air around us was charged, liquid, like an invisible river of desire flowing between us.

“Ace?” My words fell away abruptly when his lips grazed my neck, sending electricity skittering across my skin. I didn’t understand what was going on. After all these years, when he’d barely spoken to me, when he’d explicitly told Matt I was the last girl he’d ever be with, why did he want me now?

“Could I kiss you goodbye?” he whispered.

My heart pounded so hard I thought I’d break a rib. Ace wanted to kiss me, or had I misunderstood? “As friends?”

“I don’t think I could be your friend.” His voice dropped, husky and low. “I want you too much. I’ve wanted you for a very long time.” His hand fisted in my hair and he gently tugged my head to the side, baring my neck to the heated slide of his lips.

There was only one answer. There had only ever been one answer. I didn’t care that he’d told Matt he didn’t want me, because I wanted him. “Yes, Ace. Kiss me goodbye.”

Without waiting, without warning, he cupped my nape and crushed his mouth against mine. His lips were soft, his breath sweet with whiskey, and my arms tightened around his neck, dragging him closer until we were one person, not two.

It wasn’t just a kiss. It was a joining of bodies, a melding ofsouls. Deep down I knew it was a mistake, but I couldn’t stop, wouldn’t stop, and when he groaned, something snapped inside me.

“Fuck.” He groaned into my mouth. “Haley. Jesus. Fuck.”

I whimpered in response, fisting his hair, my body taut with an urgency that wiped away every rational thought in my brain. He lifted me against him and pushed me up against the brick wall deep in the shadows, kissing me with a ferocity that had me panting his name before we were lost again in the heat of desire.

We clung to each other, my legs around his waist, his arms around my shoulders, lips on lips and tongues tangled, kissing and kissing and kissing like we would never get another chance and once we stopped the world would stop, too.

“Matt,” someone shouted in the distance. “Glad you could make it.”

We froze mid-kiss, and Ace dropped me so quickly, I almost lost my footing. He gave me a cursory once-over and adjusted my dress, pulling it down over my hips with a firm yank. A chill replaced the heat that had burned between us, hitting me like a cold wave and washing away the haze of lust that had clouded my senses.

“Goodbye, bug.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead.

And then he walked away.

CHAPTER 27Haley

Two days after the incident at the radio station, I still couldn’t bring myself to talk to Ace about anything other than the most mundane topics—weather, traffic, dates and times and places I had to be. We walked to school and ate in relative silence. After dinner, I would go up to my room to study and he would go downstairs to game with Chad and Theo. I wouldn’t see him again until morning, although I would hear him pause at my door on his way to bed, as if he were checking to make sure I was still breathing. I would drop a pen or turn up my music to let him know I was still alive, and then the floor would creak, and his door would rattle, and I’d spend the next hour mentally kicking myself for being a coward when there was so much we needed to say. The tension between us was so thick, even my housemates avoided us, so it was a pleasant surprise to see Aditi in the kitchen when we got home from my Sunday-afternoon shift at the Buttercup Café.

“I’m making spaghetti,” she said when she saw me. “Do you want to share a meal?”

“Can we make it for three?” I glanced over at Ace, who was staring intently into the pot. “Someone is grumpy because he hasn’t been fed.”

“That someone is her boyfriend.” He smiled at Aditi. “She told Ben I was her boyfriend.”

“You’re my fake boyfriend,” I snapped. “And wipe that smug smile off your face. I didn’t want to hurt Ben’s feelings by turning him down without a good reason. And I’m still not talking to you.”

---