Page 91 of Shots & Echoes

Instead, I held her there, pinned against the wall, letting the weight of my presence sink into her bones. I let the seconds stretch, let her feel the full force of what I wasn’t saying—what neither of us had dared to admit.

She squirmed, and that tiny movement sent a sharp thrill through me.

“I see you,” I murmured, my voice rough, low. “Every fucking move.”

Her body tensed, those green eyes flashing with something she couldn’t quite hide. She tried, but it was too late. I had her now.

“You think you can run around with Langley like it’s nothing?” My grip tightened, just enough to make her breath hitch. “Like I won’t notice? Like I don’t already fuckingownyou?”

Her lips parted, another sharp inhale, but no words came. She was caught. Frozen in this moment with me, torn between fighting back andgiving in.

And hell if that didn’t set my blood on fire.

I wanted to claim her, mark her in ways that no one—especially not Langley—could ever erase. I wanted her to walk onto that ice knowing exactly who she belonged to.

But I held back. Barely.

Because once I crossed that line?

There would be no stopping.

She gasped, and the sound wrapped around me like a chain—tight, unrelenting. The truth sat between us now, heavy and undeniable. We’d spent weeks circling it, pretending it wasn’t there, but in this moment? There was no hiding. No running.

And damn if it didn’t feel like the most dangerous fucking thing I’d ever wanted.

Her eyes widened, a flicker of shock colliding with something deeper—something raw. “You can’t?—”

I cut her off, voice low, firm. “I can. I already have.”

Silence crashed down between us, thick and suffocating. I could hear every shaky breath she took, the sharp rise and fall of her chest pressed against mine. She wasright there, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from her, burning straight through the last frayed edge of my restraint.

I should’ve taken her. Should’ve shoved her harder against the wall and made her admit it out loud—that shefeltit too. That she’d been feeling it just as long as I had.

But I stepped back.

Not because I wanted to. Because I needed her to want it first. To need it enough to come tome.

Her lips parted slightly, her breath still uneven as if she hadn’t fully recovered. The fire in her eyes flickered for a moment—uncertainty, confusion—before reigniting into something just as reckless as what was coursing through my veins.

The space between us felt unbearable now, tension vibrating in the air like a live wire.

“Knox…” she started, voice uneven, like she was struggling to catch up with everything that had just happened.

The way she said my name sent another jolt through me. It wasn’t just hesitation—it was something else. Something that told me she was already breaking apart at the edges.

I let the silence stretch just long enough to make herfeelit.

Then, low and deliberate, I said, “Just think about what you want.” My tone was softer now, but laced with something darker, something still simmering beneath the surface.Something that wouldn’t wait forever.

Because this wasn’t a game anymore.

She nodded slowly, swallowing hard, breath still ragged from our collision. And as I watched the realization settle in—watched her come to terms with the fact that she wasalready mine—I felt it.

The shift.

The moment she knew there was no turning back.

Her eyes were wide, dazed, her chest rising and falling in uneven breaths. I could feel it—seeit—the way this moment had wrecked her just as much as it had wrecked me. I waited for her to fight back, to shove me away, to tell me to go to hell.

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