That statement alone was almost enough to drop me straight to my knees. Could barely form the admission as I wondered how the fuck this girl was so damned perfect. “Used to think that…back before I realized they were just people’s wishes coming to an end. Fizzling out.”
She stared up at me in that way that tightened my guts and made me feel like I was standing on uneven ground. “Maybe you’ve just forgotten how to wish.”
That space between us swelled, and her voice dipped in this wistfulness that cut me straight through.
“If we don’t believe in miracles, then what do we have left?”
“Lex…” I pulled her toward me. “Why is it you feel like a miracle?”
She buried her face in my shirt, both her hands clinging to me, her voice the softest praise. “You are the miracle, Zee. You were there in the moment I needed you most.”
I ran my fingers through her hair, let them brush down over that star tattoo I knew was etched on her neck, and murmured the words at the top of her head. “I want to be, Lex. I want to be there.”
“Thank you so much for bringing me tonight. You were right. I…loved your friends. Every crazy ounce of them.”
“Guess it means you fit right in, doesn’t it?” My heart ached with just how perfectly she did.
She laughed a soggy sound and hugged me tighter. “Goofball.”
I rubbed her back, both loving and hating how standing beneath the stars with her felt so natural.
Finally, I shook myself out of it and helped her back into the helmet. I straddled my bike and kicked over the engine. Never letting go of her hand, I helped her on and tucked her close so that sweet, sweet body clung to mine.
Warmth and heat and all things right.
The bike rumbled, just as deep and fierce as the rumble rolling in my chest. I clutched her hands to my stomach that quivered with need.
“Hold on tight,” I told her.
Her answer came as a breath across the shell of my ear. “I won’t let go.”
Something about the way she said it sounded like a promise. A promise I ached to keep but could never receive.
I took to the street, cool night air whipping at our faces. The girl clutched me a little tighter. Like she couldn’t get close enough. Swore I could feel her heart hammering at my back, just as sure as she could feel my heart hammering in my chest.
It thundered and roared and increased.
I needed to get away from her. Take her home and drop her at the door where I couldn’t hurt her. Before I got too close to those places that I couldn’t go.
But her car was back at my place. Another bad move I’d made in this no-win game.
Fifteen minutes later, I slowed in front of my building, fingers quick to punch in the code to the ground-level garage. My bike vibrated and grumbled as I slowly edged inside.
The garage door automatically slid shut behind us as I pulled into my reserved space, stretched out my feet, and killed the engine.
Silence.
It was a silence so thick and charged I felt like I could see it weaving around us, echoing back with lust and questions and need.
Alexis shivered when I helped her stand. Her legs were shaking, and with the way my blood went pounding, I knew it wasn’t just from the ride. She was feeling this, too.
I climbed off my bike, and my fingers brushed the silky softness of her skin as I again helped her free of the constraints of the helmet. She released a breathy, needy sigh. The warmth skated my skin and sent a thrill rushing through my veins.
“My bag is still inside your loft.” It sounded like both a warning and a confession.
“Yeah,” I uttered.
I swallowed hard like it might hold back some of this emotion threatening to spiral out of control. I clutched her hand, trying to remind myself of all the reasons I couldn’t give into this. Of all the reasons I couldn’t step over the line.
I tried to remember exactly who I would be betraying and exactly what I had to lose.
Neither of us said a word as we climbed into the elevator. Metal doors slid shut, closing us in, and with it, closing off air. Closing off sanity and reason and the fading sense of wrong and right.
Keep my hands to myself.
That was all I had to do.
I’d told her I’d try.
But this girl? She made me crazy with need, the way I was breathing her staggered breaths and she was breathing mine.
Energy lifted around us.
Shimmering and bright.
Alive and demanding.
Just as demanding as the plea of my body when I suddenly spun and pinned her against the mirrored wall. My hands were planted above her head, and her tight, sweet body was flush with mine.
A rush of shocked air gushed from between her lips. Blue eyes wide and needy as she looked up at me and locked those tiny hands in the fabric of my shirt. “Zachary.”
She begged it like a plea.
Like devotion.
Flames leapt between us.
Hot.
I gripped both sides of her neck, this girl in the palm of my hands.
Her pulse ran wild, and my dick grew hard. Just as damned desperate as the rest of me.
Her voice was a whisper. “No fear. Just life.”
No fear. Just life.
And God, just for a little while, I wanted to know what it would feel like to be alive.
My mouth crashed against hers. Hard and demanding against all her sweet, sweet belief.
She opened and gave.
Chapter Nineteen
Alexis
Warm, insistent lips pressed against mine, his body hard and big and straining as he pressed me harder against the elevator wall.
My head spun and my hands tightened in his shirt. Desperate to hold on to this moment.
My heart sped and careened, and I lifted up on my toes in a bid to get closer. To fall inside and get lost in that sacred place where I might discover all his secrets.
Where I could live on his brilliance.
Zachary groaned, and his touch became urgent, as if he wanted to erase every inch that separated us. Connect us in every way.
Those big hands were on my neck, gliding up and leaving a streak of chills on my skin as he took me possessively by the jaw. He held me steady as he nipped at my bottom lip. The plush warmth of his mouth coaxed and pled. He turned to do the same to my upper lip.
Commanding. Taking. Demanding.
Reservations gone.
Desire bloomed, bright and blinding.
It pulled a gasp from my lungs, and every part of me gave when he deepened the kiss.
His tongue stroked against mine.
Fire and consuming light.
Different from earlier.
Because while that felt like an accident, this felt like giving in.
Every intention became frantic. A chaotic need surged in the air and lit in our blood. I grappled to get him closer, my fingers frenzied as I attempted to touch him everywhere.
I traced across the ink on his arms, over the strength of his shoulders, and down the expanse of that wide, wide chest.
Right over the roar of his conflicted, captivating heart.
Did he feel mine? The way it thundered and kicked and begged?
Stomach tight with want, I wound my arms around his neck. He hitched me higher and pinned me to the wall with his hips. Fingers sank into the flesh of my thighs as he wrapped my legs around his waist.
A needy whimper left me when he rocked against my center, his cock hard and prominent as he ground against me, coaxing me into a frenzy of desire.