seems to snap something in her.
She presses forward, mouth opening against mine, and the kiss turns hungry in one seamless slide. Her tongue finds mine, hot, deliberate, stroking in a slow drag that makes my knees threaten to give out. I taste coffee and the faint sweetness ofthe dessert she had and underneath it all, just her. Maya. The same Maya I’ve known about for years, but only just met is now kissing me like she’s been starving for it.
My hands move on instinct, one sliding into her hair, cradling the back of her head so I can angle her exactly where I want her, the other finding the small of her back, pulling her flush against me until there’s no space left for doubt or hesitation. She makes a small, broken noise into my mouth when our hips meet, half moan, half sigh and the sound pours straight into my bloodstream like liquor.
She kisses deeper, hungrier, teeth grazing my bottom lip just hard enough to sting before she soothes it with another slow sweep of her tongue. My fingers tighten in her hair, hers slide down to fist the front of my shirt, tugging me impossibly closer as if she’s afraid I’ll vanish if she lets go.
We break for air only because lungs demand it. Foreheads pressed together, breathing each other’s ragged exhales, lips still grazing, unwilling to separate completely.
“Friends,” she whispers against my mouth, voice wrecked and teasing at the same time. “Is that what you want to call this?”
I drag my thumb along the curve of her jaw, feeling the way she trembles under the touch.
“No,” I murmur, stealing one more slow, filthy kiss before I answer. “I don’t think ‘friends’ covers it, but-.”
She cuts me off.
“Don’t mention my brother and ruin this moment,” she says, and then she’s kissing me again, deeper this time, slower, like she’s memorizing every slide and catch and sigh.
And I let her.
I let her take me apart one devastating kiss at a time, right there in the quiet dark, until the only thing left is the heat of her mouth and the certain, terrifying knowledge that we’re never going back.
I know Carter will kill me, but I've been thinking about this moment for a while now.
Chapter 11
Maya
I didn’t meanto fall for Ryder Beaumont.
It happened slowly, then all at once. In the careful way he moves through PT exercises, trusting me to guide him. In the way he listens when I talk about my nightmares without trying to fix them. In the quiet moments on his couch when we’re both too tired to pretend we’re okay and just exist together in shared brokenness.
The way he kissed me, the way he held me, and he didn’t want to let me go, and I prayed he didn’t. I’ve thought about him kissing me so many times, and it was everything I thought it would be.
I freeze. “What?”
“Sorry. That —I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
“Why did you kiss me back?” I ask, almost not wanting to know the answer.
“Because watching you is the best part of these sessions. Because somewhere between you insulting me in the hospital and now, I started looking forward to seeing you every day, and I’m thinking about you all the time.” He stops for a moment and looks at me in the eyes and smiles. “I’ve thought about doingthings, which I know I shouldn’t. You’re my best friend’s little sister.”
My heart does something complicated in my chest. “Ryder?—”
“I know. I know you’re dealing with your own stuff. I know I’m a disaster. I know this is probably the worst possible timing, but I can’t keep pretending I don’t feel this.”
I should tell him I understand, about us both being broken at the moment, and that I am Carters little sister, but instead, I kiss him.
It’s not graceful. I practically lunge across the space between us, my lips finding his in a collision that’s more desperation than romance. But he kisses me back, his good arm pulling me closer, and for the first time in eighteen months, I feel something other than numb.
I feel alive.
We break apart, both breathing hard.
“That was…” Ryder starts.
“Stupid?”
