Page 166 of The Best Shot

I didn’t move either. Couldn’t.

He took one step closer, voice low.

“You gonna open that door,” he said, “or am I kissing you right here in the hallway?”

48

“SOMETHING CHANGED WITH ME.”

HALE

She pulled me through the door before I could say anything else.

The key card dropped somewhere, her bag hit the floor, and then her hands were on my face, my neck, pulling me down like she could not stand another inch of air between us.

I kissed her back the same way, with nearly four months of quiet rooms behind it.

Her skin was colder than I remembered. Her face sharper beneath my hands, her lips dry from months of recycled air and wind.

But she felt like Yasmine.

We stumbled backward together, neither of us leading. She hit the edge of the bed and sat hard, and I followed, knees on the mattress, her legs wrapping around me and pulling me in.

“Hale—”

“I know.”

“I can’t⁠—”

I kissed her before she could finish.

We weren’t careful. We weren’t slow. Just hands, mouths, breath, closing distance that had nothing to do with miles.

Her nails dragged down my back. My mouth found her throat. She kept touching my face, even when I was inside her, like I couldn’t be trusted to really be here and she needed to keep checking I was.

I understood.

I’d been doing the same thing since she opened the door.

Her fingers dug into my shoulders like she had to put the months somewhere.

I let her be mad about it.

She said my name when she broke.

I followed a second later, my face pressed into her neck, breathing her in like I’d been underwater.

Afterward, we stayed tangled together, her hand moving slowly over my chest.

“How long have you been here?” she asked.

“Since yesterday.”

Her head lifted. “Yesterday?”

“Yeah. I didn’t know when you were getting in,” I said. “Just knew I needed to be here when you did.”

Her hand stilled. “Hale.”