Page 29 of Heart Breaker

I hold her gaze for a second before answering. “That we take the guesswork out of it.”

“You want to kiss me right now?”

I nod, trying to keep my pulse in check. “I think it would be a good idea.”

I give her a second—long enough that she could still pull back, still change her mind. She doesn’t. Instead, her lips part slightly, and she catches her bottom lip between her teeth in a way that tells me everything I need to know. “Okay.”

“Are you sure?” I ask quietly, my hand lifting without permission to her jaw, my thumb brushing softly along her chin.

She leans into the touch before she can stop herself. Her lips press together as she looks at me. “You’re really going to ask me that now?”

There’s a hint of a challenge there, a flicker of something sharper beneath the nerves. I smile. The back and forth between us—the push and pull—is such a fucking turn on. “Figured I’d give you the option.”

She rolls her eyes but doesn’t back away.

“Still waiting on an answer.”

Her gaze drops to my mouth this time—quick, but I catch it—before lifting back to my eyes.

“Just kiss me, Wes.”

That does it. She smells so good, and we’re so close, and all I can think about is kissing her and finding out what she tastes like.

I close what little distance is left between us, but I don’t rush it. I take my time, watching her, letting the moment stretch out—watching her breath, the way her chest rises and falls, the way she doesn’t move away.

My thumb sweeps over her cheek again as I tilt my head slightly, giving her one last second to stop me.

She doesn’t.

So, I do it.

My lips meet hers, and everything I’ve been fighting against finally gives way. At first, the kiss is slow, like I’m still pretending this is all just part of the plan. But that only lasts about a second before my hand moves to the nape of her neck, pulling her closer. Her hand grips the fabric of my shirt like she’s afraid I’m going to back away.

There’s no way I could. There isn’t a version of this kiss where I walk away because the second I felt her, the possibility of keeping this careful, practiced, or even remotely restrained was gone.

She exhales softly against my mouth, her other hand threaded into the hair at the nape of my neck. I pull her closer without thinking, my hips pressing forward so the space between us disappears completely. There’s a quiet sound when she exhales against me, and it goes straight through me, reminding me that this is something I’ve been thinking about far longer than I should admit.

She pulls back a second later, cheeks flushed, eyes wide. My hand is still gripping the back of her neck, hers fisting my shirt at my waist like she’s afraid I might vanish.

Jesus, I actually kissed her. I fucking kissed her, and it wasn’t supposed to feel like that.

I pull back just enough to look at her, my breath still shaky, then my forehead brushes lightly against hers. My hand slides to the side of her neck, my palm settling there, feeling the rapid beat of her pulse beneath my fingers.

“Was that okay?” I ask, my pulse skipping beats. “We can try again if⁠—”

Her hand tightens at my side as she shakes her head. “No… I mean, yes,” she says quickly, then exhales, like she’s trying to steady herself. “I just—” she lets out a quiet, breathless laugh. “That was… really good.”

“Yeah,” I murmur, my thumb brushing lightly along her jaw as she looks up at me, a teasing spark already creeping back into her expression. “You want to try it again?”

She doesn’t answer, she just goes up on her toes and kisses me again, any trace of hesitation gone. Her mouth parts, needy and ready, and fuck, it knocks the breath out of me.

She kisses me like she’s been waiting for this just as long as I have. Every bit of tension, all of the moments we didn’t act on, colliding at once.

Fuck me.

Her breath ghosts warm against my skin as she tilts her head, meeting me with more intent this time, more demand. It pulls me under. There’s nothing careful about it now. I feel it in the way she presses closer, the way the kiss deepens, like she’s showing me exactly what she wants without saying a word.

And I’m right there with her.