Page 31 of Stitch & Steel

My thumb brushed her cheek.

And I kissed her.

Not hard. Not rough.

But like a question.

A whisper of something more. Something real.

For a second, she froze—still caught in the adrenaline of what just happened. But when she didn’t pull away, didn’t flinch, I let myself sink deeper.

The kiss shifted.

Less question. More answer.

My hand curled around the back of her neck, and her lips parted just enough for me to taste her—sweet like honey, like something wild and untamed and blooming right in my arms.

I hadn’t planned this.

Hadn’t meant to cross the line.

But the line had blurred the second I saw her out there in the grass, clutching Scout and shaking like a leaf on a wire.

Now she was here, pressed against me, and something inside me cracked wide open.

It wasn’t just heat.

It waswarmth.

Rooted. Growing. Alive in a way I hadn’t felt in years.

This kiss wasn’t about claiming her. It wasn’t about the danger or the high.

It was a promise.

That no matter what came next—bodies on the highway, cartel threats, late-night fear—I’d be here.

For her.

I pulled back just enough to see her face.

Flushed. Breathless. Lips swollen from the kiss we just shared. And God help me, if I hadn’t just tasted heaven, I didn’t know what the hell that was.

But beneath all that softness—there was something else. Uncertainty.

She blinked up at me like she wasn’t sure if what just happened was real.

And I knew right then—I couldn’t let her doubt it.

I couldn’t letanythinghappen to her.

Not while she was under my watch.

The kiss had lit a fuse inside me. Not just lust, not just that wild ache she stirred in my blood—but a primal need to protect. Tolock downthis place so tight not even a shadow could slip through the trees.

My girl had been spooked on her own damn property.

Hell.No.