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I answer.

My fingers loosen their death grip on the safety bar without me deciding to do that. His thumb traces the line of my cheekbone, just once, and something in my chest cracks open a little at how gentle it is, because I was expecting something different, something that matched the grin and the easy confidence.

Not this.

Then he tilts his head slightly and deepens the kiss, and I stop thinking completely.

He uses his tongue, just barely, just enough, and it is perfect.

My lips tremble against his. I pull back half an inch, just enough to breathe, just enough to register that I am still, technically, a person with a body and a name and a general sense of where I am in space.

"You—" I start. "Your—"

He kisses me again.

Both hands now, framing my face as he kisses me again, and I lose myself in it completely.

I don't know how long it lasts. Five minutes. Five hours. Time is something unreliable, and I have stopped caring about correcting it.

When we finally break apart, I’m aware of a thundering in my chest that is, somehow, not fear.

I pull back slowly. Blink. Try to speak.

Nothing comes out.

I become vaguely aware, somewhere in the background of my nervous system, that we're moving again.

The Ferris wheel has started its slow descent, carrying us back toward the lights and noise below. The ground grows steadily, reassuringly closer, but I'm not entirely convinced my heart has remembered how to beat normally.

I clear my throat.

Okay. Be cool.

Pretend that kiss didn't just permanently alter your brain chemistry.

"So..." I say, aiming for casual and landing somewhere in the general vicinity. "Thanks."

Wyatt turns his head.

"For distracting me."

I force out a small shrug. "From... you know." I gesture vaguely around us. "The whole being-stuck-fifty-feet-in-the-air thing."

My voice doesn't crack. Honestly, considering the circumstances, that's one of my finest achievements.

"It was a good distraction."

Wyatt looks at me for a beat, and then that slow, devastating grin spreads across his face. The full-wattage one.

The one that makes me want to kiss him all over again. Which is exactly the kind of thought I'm refusing to have.

"Worked, didn't it?"

"It did." I clear my throat. "But now we never have to bring it up again. Okay?"

His mouth twitches. "I'm afraid I can't do that."

His gaze drops to my mouth, and all I can think about is how badly I want him to kiss me again.