Page 55 of Zayrik

Nyla stiffened, but didn’t turn. “I didn’t ask for space.”

“No. You just ran.”

She turned then, fire flickering in her eyes, determination warring with want. “And what, you came back to finish what I started?”

I stepped in, crowding the distance she hadn’t defended fast enough. The scent of her... mechanical oil and something sweet and purely her, made my head spin. “You think I’m here because of a kiss?”

“You’re not?” she challenged, chin high. Defiant. But her voice trembled, and her pupils flared as I stepped in.

Gods, she was beautiful when she was angry. When she was fighting herself as much as she was fighting me.

“No,” I growled. “I’m here because you kissed me like it meant something. Then pretended it didn’t. And because I’m done pretending I don’t want you.” Done pretending this pull between us was anything less than inevitable.

Her breath caught, a small sound that shot straight through me. But she didn’t move. Didn’t retreat. If anything, she swayed closer, like her body was betraying every careful defense she’d built.

I reached for her.

I spun her around, my hands at her waist, pressing her breathless against the lockers. The impact nearly took my breath away, too. Her body felt like soft curves and hidden strength against mine.

One hand lay softly against her neck, the other on her waist.

Her hands hit my chest, not to push me away, but to steady herself. To anchor us both in this moment. She was breathinghard, her pulse racing in her neck. I could feel it beneath my fingers, matching the frantic beat of my own heart.

“Still want to lie to me, Nyla?” I rasped, my forehead nearly touching hers. The space between us charged with everything we hadn’t said. Everything we couldn’t say.

Her chest heaved, her pupils were blown wide. She looked up at me, her fingers curling in my shirt, tugging me close like she couldn’t help herself. Her body arched into mine like she couldn’t bear the distance anymore.

“You think this is a good idea?” she whispered, her voice trembling with desire, apprehension, and an underlying intensity.

“No,” I admitted. “It’s a terrible idea.” But I couldn’t stop. Couldn’t walk away. Not when she felt like this against me.

My hand slid to her cheek, thumb tracing her lower lip. Need coiled tight inside me. “Are you sure?”

She nodded once, eyes dark and wild. All pretense of resistance gone. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

Then I kissed her.

No warning. No finesse.

Just heat. Just want, and everything I’d been holding back since the moment she crashed into my life and made it impossible to think straight.

She gasped against my mouth, and I swallowed the sound, dragging her tighter against me. Her hands curled in my shirt, fingers gripping like she wanted to fight it, but couldn’t.

I broke the kiss just long enough to press my forehead to hers, breath ragged. “You want me to stop, say it now.”

Her answer was to pull me back in, mouth hungry, open, desperate.

And I lost it.

I picked her up, lifting her until her back hit the lockers hard enough to rattle them. Her legs wrapped around my waist like she’d done it a thousand times.

Like her body already knew mine.

I groaned into her neck, the mating marks on my arms burning, lighting up in activation like they knew.

She felt it too, I could tell. Her breath hitched, her hips grinding against mine like instinct had taken over.

“You feel that?” I whispered, lips brushing her ear. “That pull between us?”

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