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“I can’t tell you that.” I couldn’t tell her that because I did want to kiss her. I wanted a whole lot more than that. I had since the first night we’d met. The second she’d taken off her helmet and I saw her smile in the flashing red and blue lights.

“So, what do you want me to do?”

Of course she was forcing me to say it.

I opened my mouth but no words came out.

“Do you want me to kiss you, Hunter?” she asked.

This was it. The moment that would change everything. Two paths and I had to choose one.

Except there weren’t two paths because right now, looking at her, I could only see one. Stace left me only one choice.

“Yes. I want you to kiss me.” I could have nodded, but I knew she wanted the words.

Her smile stopped my heart. It was unlike any of her smiles I’d seen before. This one was radiant. Pure, clear happiness. She was so fucking gorgeous.

“Well, if you wanted me to kiss you so bad then all you had to do was ask,” she said.

“I’m going to beat you with a pillow again,” I said, my voice still not very steady.

Her fingers traced my jaw like she was drawing a map of my face.

“No, you’re not,” she said before our lips met.

I wasn’t going to beat her with a pillow, that was true. The contact of her mouth sizzled through my veins. Her mouth was warm, so warm. Her lips cradled mine as if she was trying to be gentle.

Gentle was fine for other times, but for right now? I didn’t crave gentle. I didn’t need gentle.

I tilted my head and sucked her bottom lip into my mouth, causing her to make a sound of surprise and it was as if she’d been waiting for me to do that.

Stace backed me up until I hit a wall and rattled some picture frames. At some point she’d pulled the clip from my hair and had wound one hand through the strands. Buck barked, but Stace didn’t remove her mouth from mine to tell him to calm down. No, her mouth was busy as she licked her tongue into my mouth and nibbled on my lips and turned me inside out while her hands grabbed and pulled at my clothes.

The kiss was aggressive and claiming and too much and not enough. Our teeth clashed and our noses smashed each other and none of it mattered because Stace was kissing me and this was what I’d wanted. What we’d both wanted.

“What are you doing to me?” she moaned into my mouth as she squeezed my side and pulled gently on my hair which caused me to whimper.

“What are you doing to me?” I threw back at her, my lungs stuttering as if they’d forgotten how to work properly.

Stace rested her forehead against mine as she panted and the hand in my hair trembled.

“I can’t even think anymore,” she said, and I knew exactly what she meant.

I’d never had a kiss like this. Never, ever. It hit me with all the intensity of a car crash. But in a good way.

No, I was definitely not thinking coherently anymore.

“Fuck,” Stace said, leaning back a little. She almost looked scared.

“Yeah.”

She started to back away, but I dug my fingers into her sides that I’d apparently been using to hold on for dear life.

“No!” My voice was way too loud.

“What is it?”

With one hand, I grabbed the back of her neck and tried to draw her face closer to mine again. “Don’t stop.”