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The door to the laser tag venue opened. Vuk exited, his face set in stone once more. I didn’t know what call he had to make this late on a Saturday night, but whatever it was, it’d pissed him off.

Our eyes met. The events of the night passed between us, heavy with unspoken words.

A muscle jumped in Vuk’s jaw. He turned and left without saying goodbye.

Follow his lead and walk away, Ayana.

I stared after him. Remembered the thrill of his lips on my hand and the electric high of our moment in the dark. It was the most alive I’d felt in a long, long time.

When he disappeared around the corner, something inside me snapped. I ran after him before I lost my nerve. “Wait!”

He stopped mid-stride, his back still to me. The street was quieter than the main avenue outside the arena, and I could hear the thundering of my heart as I walked toward him.

I’d worn high-heeled boots against the venue’s advice because I was most comfortable in heels. They were usually a confidence booster, and they gave me a sense of control over my life.

None of that confidence or control was present tonight. Nerves hummed in my veins, high-pitched and strained, but it was too late to back out.

Vuk finally turned and watched me approach, the picture of indifference. Shadows played over his face, twining around knife-blade cheekbones and a cruel, stern mouth.

A month ago, being alone with Vuk Markovic on a dark street would’ve given me a panic attack. But somehow, somewhere, that had changed.

If I could choose anyone to be with at that moment, I would choose him.

I stopped a few feet away, my heart in my throat. “When you kissed my hand during the game, was it a cop-out or…was it something else?”

I cut straight to the chase. It was too late, and I was too frustrated to do anything else.

My heart pattered to an uneven beat as I awaited his response.

Not a single flicker of emotion marred Vuk’s expression.What would that ‘something else’ be?

“You tell me.” I’d never been this forward with anyone, but we’d been dancing around each other for weeks.

It was time to address the elephant in the room, once and for all.

Vuk peeled himself out of the shadows and into the light. His steps echoed in the empty street, and a strange twist of anticipatory fear curled through me.

It was the same feeling that’d consumed me in the arena. The knowledge that I was teetering on the precipice of danger, and that the fall would be both the most terrifying and most exhilarating thing I’d ever experienced.

It took him three steps to close the distance between us. The threat of an oncoming storm lurked behind those cold, blue eyes.Why are you here, Ayana?

This was my last chance to make up an excuse. That would be the safe, smart thing to do.

But I was tired of being safe, and smart, and every other thing that hadn’t gotten me anywhere except here—trapped in a gilded cage and bound to a man I didn’t love.

Why did everyone else get to do what they wanted while I had to do what was “right?” Why couldn’t I chase a piece of my own happiness when I’d spent so much of it in pursuit of others’ dreams and goals?

I just wantedonething for myself. One spark of connection that made life exciting again.

My breaths puffed in the cool night breeze. I took a tiny step closer, my chest brushing his with every exhale.

Vuk’s muscles visibly tensed, but he didn’t move away.

Anticipation streaked through my blood. I was climbing, inch by inch, to the top of a rollercoaster and waiting for the inevitable drop. That sudden, giddy rush—there was nothing quite like it.

Emboldened, I placed a hand on his shoulder and stood on tiptoe, letting reckless courage guide me as I tilted my chin up and?—

Vuk’s hand shot up and manacled my wrist. His palm burned into my skin. “Don’t.”