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I wanted to turn away. I wanted to run. I wanted to yell and say this was stupid, but the longer I stared at her, the more I realized I was never given the chance to say goodbye.

She hadn’t let me.

And I wondered, if we had handled it differently…

Would she have been able to leave in the first place?

Her breath came out in an uneasy exhale as she stood there studying me back; her eyes widened as I leaned down, cradling her cheek with my right hand like I had done back then.

My lips touched hers.

Asked permission.

With tentative velvet strokes, our lips slid against one another, slowly, as if it was a test we both wanted to pass with flying colors.

Her body relaxed into mine.

And then she was reaching between us, fisting my shirt with one hand, while gripping my shoulder with the other.

She tasted the same.

But her kiss was different.

More mature.

There was nothing uneasy about the way she slid her tongue past my lips. I opened my mouth to her, deepening the kiss. I tried to rein it in because, after all, our first kiss had been controlled. We’d laughed after then kissed again.

Tame.

It was so high school.

Then again, we’d been only sixteen.

But this kiss?

It said more than words could.

She moaned into my mouth when I moved my hands down, cupped her ass, and pulled her roughly against me as I attacked her mouth in a new angle. Maddy opened up to me as if she’d been waiting for my touch her whole life.

She cast a spell on me with that one kiss. My teeth nipped at her bottom lip as my hands moved into her hair, my fingers digging into her scalp, as we made out under the bleachers. She grasped at the loophole of my jeans, jerking my hardness against her and rubbing her body up and down mine as if she was just waiting for me to take her against the grass.

I heard nothing.

Felt nothing

Just Maddy’s touch.

The smooth caress of her tongue.

And then her hand as she slowly moved it from the belt loop up my hard stomach.

“Damn it.” I pulled away. It almost killed me.

Her eyes were lazy, her lips swollen.

“I, uh…” I cleared my throat, “…don’t think we fully captured the awkward first kiss moment…”

She licked her lips and then, as if she still tasted me there, gave me such a lust-filled gaze I almost reached for her again, almost asked her if I could strip her in the middle of the field and make a new memory.