Warm, insistent lips pressed against mine, his body hard and big and straining as he pressed me harder against the elevator wall.

My head spun and my hands tightened in his shirt. Desperate to hold on to this moment.

My heart sped and careened, and I lifted up on my toes in a bid to get closer. To fall inside and get lost in that sacred place where I might discover all his secrets.

Where I could live on his brilliance.

Zachary groaned, and his touch became urgent, as if he wanted to erase every inch that separated us. Connect us in every way.

Those big hands were on my neck, gliding up and leaving a streak of chills on my skin as he took me possessively by the jaw. He held me steady as he nipped at my bottom lip. The plush warmth of his mouth coaxed and pled. He turned to do the same to my upper lip.

Commanding. Taking. Demanding.

Reservations gone.

Desire bloomed, bright and blinding.

It pulled a gasp from my lungs, and every part of me gave when he deepened the kiss.

His tongue stroked against mine.

Fire and consuming light.

Different from earlier.

Because while that felt like an accident, this felt like giving in.

Every intention became frantic. A chaotic need surged in the air and lit in our blood. I grappled to get him closer, my fingers frenzied as I attempted to touch him everywhere.

I traced across the ink on his arms, over the strength of his shoulders, and down the expanse of that wide, wide chest.

Right over the roar of his conflicted, captivating heart.

Did he feel mine? The way it thundered and kicked and begged?

Stomach tight with want, I wound my arms around his neck. He hitched me higher and pinned me to the wall with his hips. Fingers sank into the flesh of my thighs as he wrapped my legs around his waist.

A needy whimper left me when he rocked against my center, his cock hard and prominent as he ground against me, coaxing me into a frenzy of desire.

We reeled.

Both of us staggered by the sudden power of that irresistible connection that had steadily built.

A breaking point.

A chasm that couldn’t be crossed.

So instead, we fell.

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open.

“Hold tight,” he muttered, still kissing me madly, refusing to let me go.

He fumbled in his pocket, freed his keys, and twisted the lock. He kicked one side of the metal doors open, then kicked it closed just as fast, carrying me into the darkened depths of his loft.

Never breaking that kiss.

A hazy light filtered in from the huge bank of windows overlooking city and sky, and somehow I knew he was drawn to it, his footfalls guiding us in that direction, to the beauty that abounded and waited in the heavens.

Waiting for him to reach out and take it.

I shivered when cool glass hit my back.

“Zachary,” I whispered against his lips, still kissing him just as wildly as he was kissing me.

It was as if something inside him had been unhinged. Freed. Something he’d been missing and had somehow found in me.

“Lex…God…Lex.”

His dick pressed eagerly against my jeans. I felt like I was burning up, from the inside out, flames lapping at my spirit, at my soul, while this boy’s possessive touch singed and marked my skin from the outside.

I moaned when he dragged down the collar of my flimsy shirt, yanking down the cup of one side of my bra at the same second. Cool air hit my skin, and my nipple pebbled, tight with anticipation.

Zee edged back and took the flesh into his mouth.

Hot and wet and perfect.

Sensation spun, a live wire that stroked the desire that consumed me, every cell. I writhed against his solid length while he lapped and sucked until his hand was back on my face, his mouth on mine, kissing me like he meant it.

“You are so beautiful. So goddamned beautiful.” The words lived in the middle of our kiss. Meshing and twining with every lap and lick. “Can’t get you out of my mind, Lex. Doesn’t matter how hard I try, I can’t get you out. You’ve gotten under my skin. So deep. So fucking deep.”

My fingers sank into the bristling muscle of his shoulders. “Why would you want to stop thinking of me? Don’t you feel this?”

His voice was pained. “Don’t you get it yet? That’s the problem. I feel everything. I want you so goddamned bad, and I can’t ever have you.”

I was swept up in a sudden overwhelming emotion.

This boy.

This boy.

This giving boy who I knew would have given his life for me. Without a name or a reason or any proof I might deserve his mercy.

My kiss turned tender. So tender as I caressed the lines and curves of his gorgeous face. “Why wouldn’t you deserve me? You saved me.”

His hold cinched tighter on my hips, his body rocking in a slow, needy arc. His teeth ground as he rubbed his cock against the heat burning at the center of my thighs. As if it caused him physical pain while I was certain I’d never felt anything so perfect.

“Tell me why you can’t have me,” I panted.

Grief struck in the depths of those bronze eyes. “Told you there are things you can’t know. And fuck, Alexis…there are things you deserve that I just can’t give you.”

“Like what?”

He threaded his fingers in my hair. “You deserve someone who can love you the way you should be loved. Someone who can walk out the door with you on his arm and know he’s got the best girl at his side and show the fucking world how great she is. You deserve a relationship. A man to come home to. Tell me that isn’t something you want. Tell me it isn’t something you’ve been looking for. I know you well enough, if you deny wanting those things, it’ll only be a lie.”

I blinked at him. “Of course it’s something I want. Something I’ve been looking for my whole life.”

“And you haven’t found that guy yet?” Was it anger that flashed through the storm in his eyes?

I gulped around the emotion that suddenly clogged the base of my throat. “No. I’ve just always known I’d feel when it was real. I’ve had boyfriends…a couple who were kind of serious. But none of them have ever made me feel the way I knew I’d feel when I met the one who was meant for me.”

Zee kept rocking against me. A needy, desperate sway.

So close to driving me out of my mind. And I was feeling all those things I’d anticipated when I just knew…this breathtaking sensation that I was falling. Falling fast and hard.

What I never anticipated was the fear that would come with it. I guess I’d just never known what it would feel like for my heart to truly be at risk.

I was torn between begging him to bridge the gap between us and pushing him away as a wave of horror swelled in my chest as that nagging question I tried to disregard refused to be ignored.

I forced out the raspy words. “Before we move any further, I need to know one thing. Tell me this isn’t cheating.”

His strong jaw trembled. “No.”

Relief. It hit me on all sides.

Should I feel it?

I didn’t know. Because something about his response and reservations felt off. Wrong. While everything else felt perfectly right. This road ours. Purposed.

I cupped his face, forcing him to look at me when I kissed him softly. Reverently.

Before I took a leap of faith because I’d always believed faith would catch me. “Then I don’t care what’s standing between us as long as we have right now.”

He roughed his hands up the outside of my thighs, his heart slamming at his ribs as his fingers sank into the soft flesh of my ass, pulling me closer to his straining body.

He groaned, and I swore his eyes rolled back in his head. “Fuck…you feel so good. Too good.”

The softest giggle rolled up my throat, something awed and confused and elated. My voice was a trembling, breathy mess of lust and emotion. “You’re barely touching me.”

Somehow, that felt like a lie. I could feel him everywhere.

Low laughter rumbled in his chest, and there was something dark about it, something both regretful and amazed when he buried his face in my neck and murmured the words, “You have no idea, Lex. No idea what just touching you like this does to me. I could die a happy man right now…but we need to stop.”

The frenzy had worn off, and my senses slowly came back into focus. I chewed at my lip, finding restraint in a moment I wanted to let go most. “You’re probably right. We should slow down. I’m not exactly a one-night stand kind of girl.”

And I was sure once I gave that part of myself to him, I’d never fully recover when he was gone.

Guess I had a little self-preservation, after all.

Chuckling, he ran a knuckle down the side of my cheek. “No?”

My head shook, and I could feel the soft smile playing around my mouth. “No.”

“That’s good, because I’m not much of a one-night stand kind of guy.”

I looked up at his stunning face, my insides trembling with the need to know him.

Would he ever let me?

“What kind of guy are you?”

His teeth ground, hands tensing on my hip, as if warring over what to give. Slowly he lowered me to my feet, his touch so tender as he helped to resituate my clothing. He peeked up at me as he straightened my blouse back onto my shoulder.

“If I could be, I’d be a forever kind of guy. But I gave up my forever a long time ago.”

Affection brimmed inside me, all tangled with hurt and worry for this broken boy. Wishing there was a way to fix it, whatever it was.

I cleared my throat and stepped away from him. “I should probably get going. It’s late.”

He stepped back to put more distance between us. “You probably should or I might not let you leave.”

I headed for my bag, peering back at the man who watched me softly as I went. I could feel his eyes tracing me, caressing me just as sure as his hands. Remnants of desire trembled beneath the surface of my skin.

My body already hooked.

Needy for his touch.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when my phone started ringing from my bag. “Oh…crap…I didn’t even realize I’d left it.”

I guess that’s what happened when you got wrapped up in a hypnotizing boy—you forget yourself.

I fumbled through my bag to find my phone. It glowed where it sat on the bottom, and all that desire I’d been feeling scattered in a bluster of wind like the last of autumn’s fallen leaves.

Avril.

I swallowed hard in attempt to steel myself for her call. I never knew what was going to be waiting for me on the other end. What I did know was it never was good.

Hands shaking, I accepted the call and pushed it to my ear, turning away from Zee because somehow I couldn’t stand to see him watching me as I took this call.

“Avril,” I said, voice low.

Sobs echoed on the other end. “I need you.”

Of course she did.

“I told you, you need to stop doing this.” I’d been telling her for years.

“I just need something to eat.”

My head dropped, fingers on my temples, knowing her excuse amounted to nothing but a lie. “At one in the morning?”

“Please.”

“Damn it, Avril.” It was a sigh of surrender. She knew it well.

She started to ramble. “Thank you so much, Alexis. After this time, I won’t ask you anymore. I promise. I just…need something to get me through the night.”

Agony clutched every cell in my body.

I knew what she meant. Where she’d slipped. What it was she really was needing.

Guilt locked in my chest when I told her to meet me at the same intersection I’d met her at the last time—the day Zee had followed me and somehow set all this in motion.

I ended the call.

Silence swamped the open space, filling it like black waters that lapped and churned and raged.

Goose bumps lifted at my nape when I felt the puff of air exhaled at the back of my neck, blowing through the matted strands of my hair as his rage trickled down my spine like a warning.

“That was your sister?”

Shivers rushed.

I should feel fear. But the only thing I felt was safety in his anger. Comfort in his dread.

“She needs me,” I whispered, hating that I sounded so helpless. But in this situation, that was exactly what I was.

He snaked an arm around my waist so his hand was against my stomach as he yanked me back against the hard planes of his chest.

His mouth was at my cheek. “And what if I need you? What if I need you safe? What if I need you to stay out of that side of town so I don’t end up in prison?”

I felt the truth of his threat.

The words were thick. “I feel her, Zee. When she hurts, I do, too, and I know exactly what it is she’s feeling. I can’t ignore that. Not for me. Not for you.”

Torment. I felt it. His and mine. As if he somehow could understand what it was like to be in this position, he tightened his hold, every inch of him still hard, maybe harder as his muscles bristled with this barely contained storm that threatened to spin out of control.

“I won’t let him hurt you. Told you that night. Not ever again.” His second hand wound around me, belted around my waist. “You know I’m coming with you.”

There was no question behind it.

And I think I knew right then—If Zee made a promise, he was going to keep it.