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“You okay?” He brushed an errant curl that had escaped my ponytail out of my face, caressing my cheek with a fingertip in the process. I wanted so badly to tilt my face deeper into his touch, to feel his arms around me until all my hurts and frustrations were soothed away to nothingness. Instead, I stepped out of his hold and tucked the curl behind an ear when it slipped free again.
“Fine. Just… I’m fine.” I needed to create some distance between us before he broke through my ever-faltering walls. There was already a very large, Darrio-shaped crack in the foundation. “Thanks for that,” I muttered as I jerked a thumb back toward Sam, “but I’m just gonna head back to my room… alone.”
“I thought you wanted me to walk you.” I did my best to keep my eyes averted so I didn’t have to face the heartbreaking frown I could hear in his voice, but I lost the battle.
Gut punch.
“It’s okay, I’m sure you’ve got things to do. I’m gonna rest for a while.”
“Alright. I guess I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah, later.” The glint of hurt in his eyes was gone so quickly, I’d have thought I imagined it if I didn’t know him so well. Caving to the impulse, I closed the distance between us and pressed my lips to his. It was supposed to be brief—an apology and a goodbye—but his arm swooped around my waist and yanked me tight against him.
A sharp inhale parted my lips and he capitalized, slanting his mouth over mine and sliding his tongue inside.
Fuck.
My fingers threaded through the short hair at his nape instantly, holding him close while I surrendered to his sensual onslaught. His kiss said so much more than words could, and my heart answered in the tightening of my grip and the digging of my nails into his flesh.
The sigh that escaped me turned to a moan when his tongue retreated and sharp teeth nipped my lower lip.
Our kiss lasted all of a minute, but I was plundered and breathless when he lifted his head away to catch my gaze.
“Nothing’s changed, Red. Not for me.” The hoarseness in his voice could have been from the kiss, but my heart screamed its root was deeper than a simple lip-lock.
My own throat tightened. I wasn’t about to risk giving away too much by responding aloud, so I offered a jerky nod. He dipped in and gave me one last brush of his soft lips before releasing me and striding down the hall, hands jammed in the pocket of his hoodie.
Which left me standing there alone, heart pounding, lips kiss-swollen, thoughts trapped in a tilt-a-whirl.
What. The. Hell?
It was now painfully obvious my “hold all men at a distance” plan wasn’t as subtle as I’d thought. Knowing I was hurting him was a knife twisting in my gut, but I had no idea how to lower my guard and let him back in without inviting a whole new kind of pain.
So even though there was a man who loved me more than anything dying to be at my side, I made the long trek back to my room completely, achingly alone.
