Page 33 of Outlaw Ridge: Griff
The words blurred for a second, and before she could stop it, the image slammed into her. Flames clawing through her living room walls, smoke rolling through the roof beams, everything she’d tried to build turning to ash in the span of minutes.
The ache caught her off guard. She hadn’t let herselffeelit last night. Not really. There hadn’t been time. She’d needed to think, to move, to survive. But now—
The loss hit like a sucker punch. The dread of seeing what was left, of walking through the wreckage of what she’d tried to turn into a home. Her grip tightened on the edge of the desk. A breath caught in her throat.
Griff was next to her in an instant. He didn’t speak right away. Just slipped an arm around her waist, and when she didn’t pull away, he pulled her closer.
“I know this is technically wrong,” he said quietly, his voice close to her ear. “But I don’t care.”
She let out a shaky breath, not even bothering to hide it. “Neither do I,” she whispered.
She leaned into him, her forehead brushing his shoulder. His arms were strong, steady. Warm. And right now, they were the only thing keeping her from breaking apart. She didn’t want distance. She didn’t want space. She just wantedthis.
To feel something that didn’t burn.
Except somethinghadburned.
Not her house. Not her past.
This.
The heat between her and Griff. The slow-building pull that had been simmering from the beginning, only now it flared hotter than ever. Right there in the quiet hum of the cold case office, with grief tightening her chest and his arms wrapped around her like a lifeline.
She didn’t want to need this. Didn’t want to feel anything beyond fury and resolve. But with Griff, it was impossible not to.
There was something about him, the way he held her without flinching, without asking. The way he didn’t try to fix it, juststoodwith her in the moment.
His strength steadied her, grounded her. But it also sparked something else. Something reckless and real.
She tilted her head slightly, just enough to look up at him. His gaze was already on her, unreadable, locked on hers.
She didn’t think.
Didn’t analyze.
She just leaned in, and so did he.
Their lips met, brief, tentative, warm. A breath of a kiss that still somehow shook her all the way through.
By the time they pulled back, neither of them said a word. They didn’t have to. The air between them said everything.
“A mistake?” he asked, voice low, his eyes searching hers.
Lily had to drag in a breath before she could answer, her lungs tight, her pulse still skittering from that kiss.
“Probably,” she said, managing a half-smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
She didn’t add anything else, not aloud.
But inside… yeah. It probablywasa mistake. One that cracked open something between them, something she’d worked hard to keep locked down. It had broken through the walls she’d built to keep things simple, professional, safe.
And now?
Now it felt like everything was more complicated than ever. But even as she stood there in the shelter of his arms, trying to gather her thoughts, she couldn’t summon a single ounce of regret.
Not for the kiss.
Not for the moment.
