Page 113 of Lose You Twice

He kisses me like the restraint has been hurting him. Like every look, every almost, every inch of space he gave me has been leading here. His hand slides deeper into my hair, and I make a sound that embarrasses me until he answers with one of his own, low and rough against my mouth.

The washer digs into my back.

I don’t care.

I kiss him back with both hands in his shirt and years of missing him tearing through me too fast to manage. It isn’t like being seventeen. At seventeen, kissing Kai felt like a secret we were always racing to keep. This feels like a truth that finally ran out of places to hide.

He shudders.

“Hey, Kai-Kai!” Weston yells from somewhere in the locker room. “I’m starving and we gotta go!”

Reality crashes back so hard I almost laugh against Kai’s mouth.

He pulls back just enough to breathe, forehead hovering close to mine. Neither of us moves far enough to pretend this is over.

“Wren,” he says.

My name sounds broken in his mouth.

I keep my eyes closed for one second because if I open them, I’ll have to deal with the fact that we did it.

Not by accident.

On purpose.

I open my eyes.

His are already on me. Dark. Unsteady. Too honest.

Weston yells again, farther away this time. “Kai Mercer! I’m hangry, let’s go!”

The absurdity helps and hurts at the same time.

Kai’s mouth curves faintly, but his eyes don’t leave mine.

“We should stop,” I whisper.

“Yeah.”

Neither of us moves.

I force my hands to release his shirt.

His hand leaves my hair slowly, like it costs him.

The second there is space between us, I miss the contact so badly it scares me.

Kai’s jaw tightens. “I should go.”

I nod, even though some reckless part of me wants to say no.

He reaches the door, then stops with his hand on the handle. When he looks back, his face is still raw in a way I’ve never seen on him before.

“I’m not sorry,” he says.

A small smile plays on my lips, my chest almost seeming to vibrate at his words.

“Me neither.”