Page 56 of Too Far

“What’s really happening out there?” I whisper against his lips.

“We had to give them something tonight. I called in a favor. It’s South Chapel’s bye week. Greedy had no trouble convincing his boys to come drink my liquor and possibly be filmed for SportsZone.”

My fists tighten around the fabric of his sweat-dampened T-shirt. “Who all—”

“I vetted everyone, Siren. No one here saw you that night. Greedy wouldn’t do that, and you know I wouldn’t allow it.”

As the air presses out of my lungs, I rest my cheek on Decker’s chest, then inhale, breathing him in. Instantly, my heart rate begins to regulate.

A kerfuffle in the hallway reminds me that we aren’t alone.

Sighing, Decker drops his head back against the door. “We have to get back.”

I fist his shirt tighter. “Decker.”

He rests his lips against my forehead. “I know.”

“One minute?” I quietly request.

“One minute.”

And then he kisses me.

It’s soft at first, a subtle greeting. A reacquaintance. It’s like arriving at a beloved destination I haven’t visited for a long time.

Never mind that I had his cock nudging the back of my throat on the boat last night.

His kiss right now is full of promise, brimming with unspoken potential.

It’s a kiss to assure.

It’s a kiss of surrender.

It’s a kiss meant to encapsulate everything we’re going to be.

As seconds tick by, our movements become frantic, and the kiss evolves into more.

We’re desperate.

Not just for each other.

We’re both desperate for more.

We’re desperate for time to stand still or, at the very least, slow. To give us pause. To give us a fighting chance at more.

I trail my fingers down his torso and burrow beneath the fabric of his T-shirt until I graze warm skin. His abs are impossibly defined: taut valleys of strain and discipline from the exertion of the game.

We don’t break the kiss as he slides his palms under my shirt, finding my low back.

He rests there. Holding me. Linking us.

Giving all he has to give in this moment.

We whisper silent but unified prayers against each other’s lips.

Let this be enough.

When it’s all over, when the feature wraps and the cameras are gone, when we’re free to examine our reality and consider how we’ll make this work with the guys.