“Don’t start.”
She smiles against my shoulder. “It’s very heroic of you.”
“Occupational hazard,” I mutter.
“Mm. Carrying me home after midnight. Next, you’ll be talking to woodland animals.”
“I’ll put you down.”
Her chuckle skates across my neck. “No you won’t.”
She shifts slightly to get comfortable, her head tipping closer to mine. The movement presses her thigh more firmly into my hand, and I can feel her breath warm where it ghosts across my jaw.
“Careful,” I say quietly. “You keep moving like that, we’re not making it back home.”
She huffs a soft laugh. “Charming.”
We walk like that through the quiet streets, the last of the clock’s echo fading behind us. Her fingers trace idly along the back of my neck, but she’s quiet.
“You good?”
“Yeah,” she whispers.
My grip adjusts under her thighs, pulling her a fraction closer. Her body shifts so easily against mine, and it settles somewhere deep inside.That feeling.
The one I haven’t felt in years. But this time, I’m not running through worst case scenarios or mapping out how to make this work. It just is.
Her head dips to rest lightly against my shoulder again, and this time, I turn my head just enough to press my mouth briefly to her temple.
When we arrive home, I push the door open with my shoulder, step inside, and kick it shut behind us. The sound echoes louder than it usually does, but tonight it doesn’t matter.
I don’t put her down straight away, and she doesn’t ask me to. I just stand there in the entryway with her still in my arms, the space between us narrowed down to breath and heat and the slow rise and fall of her chest against mine.
Then she shifts just enough to look at me, and something changes.
My hand slides from under her legs to her hip as I lower her to her feet, but I don’t step back. Don’t give her space to reset. And her hands stay resting on against my shoulders, so I know she doesn’t want that either.
My other hand comes up, fingers brushing along her jaw, tipping her face up slightly as she exhales.
“Evan—”
I back her up a step without breaking eye contact. Then another. Her spine meets the wall with a soft thud, and I lean in, close enough that she can feel the warmth of my breath on her skin.
“Lights stay on,” I murmur.
And then I kiss her.
Chapter twenty
You see what I’m seeing?
Penny
Evan’s hips press into mine, and I moan into his mouth as the kiss intensifies.
The wall is cool against my back, but everything else is hot—his tongue, his palm spanning my thigh, the drag of stubble that makes me shiver.
I fist the collar of his shirt to bring him closer, swallowing the rough whimper he makes when my teeth graze his bottom lip. Somewhere in the blur, I remember Elle is across town, that the house is ours and ours alone tonight, and the thought spreads through me like a flame.
