The Hardest Fall(96)

I gave her a squeeze and she stopped. I looked down and met her confused gaze. “We can’t stay here, in his apartment. I won’t.”

Her frown only deepened until understanding dawned on her and she started shaking her head.

“No, Dylan. I mean, yeah, but—”

I kissed her lips, cutting her off, because I couldn’t help myself.

“Not tonight. Please.”

“But you need to know. There are things—”

“I’ll know everything tomorrow or the next day. Just give me one more day, okay? Just us, you and me, no one else. Nothing else between us.”

She stared into my eyes for a few more beats then exhaled a burst of air and nodded.

More seconds ticked by and I couldn’t fall asleep. I cleared my throat. “By the way, you kissed me. You lost the bet you were so sure you would never lose.”

Her head shot up, hitting me under my chin. “I didn’t! You kissed me!”

“I don’t think so. You went for it first.”

“No. That doesn’t count. You kissed me first.”

I had the biggest grin on my face when I finally fell asleep after arguing with her about who had lost the best. In the end, I’d gotten her, in every sense of the word—only I had no idea none of it would matter the next day, not after the way she broke my heart.





Chapter Twenty-Four





Zoe





He was playing with my fingers; I think that was what woke me up initially, that and hearing his voice murmur my name against my skin. It was just a little more than a whisper that suddenly spurred my heart into a fast beat. It was too damn early to get that excited just because you heard someone’s hot, sleepy voice.

I opened my eyes with a cheesy grin plastered on my face. One look at that bed and you’d have bet money there was no way two people—especially with one of them being Dylan’s size—would fit in there, but we did. We fit perfectly. Sure, his feet and half of the arm that was under my head were off the bed, my legs were tangled with his, and my knees were hanging off the side, too, but who cared? Like I said, we fit perfectly.

“Good morning,” he murmured, and I looked back so I could meet his dark blue eyes. He gave me a lazy grin, one I couldn’t not reciprocate.

“Good morning.”

“Sleep good?”

Still sporting that grin, I nodded, and his smile got bigger. I could feel the heat rushing to my cheeks. My eyes dropped to his lips and I watched the grin turn into the smile I loved the most on him, the one where he smiled with his eyes just as much as he did with his lips. It was warm, genuine, hot. It sounds cheesy, I know, but it was true that it basically took your—okay, maybe it wouldn’t take yours…it better not…but it took my breath away.

Whoosh.

Gone, just like that.

“Don’t move,” I said in a rush then threw open the covers, squeaked, and scrambled to pull them back up.

“What’s happening?” Dylan asked, looking at me with amusement dancing in his eyes.

I pulled the covers higher. “I…just…let me get the pillow.” I didn’t give him a chance to even utter a protest or yank it away before I could get to it. I pulled it right out from under him and his head bounced on the mattress. Muttering a quick apology, I hugged it to my chest and carefully exited the bed. He caught my hand before I could straighten up.

“Where are you going?”

“I’ll be right back. I just want to get something.”

He let me go and I backed out of the room, hoping everything was covered.

When I got what I needed from my bag, I rushed back to him. He was still lying down, using his arm behind his head as a pillow. I took in the muscles, the arms, the chest, the smooth skin, the bulge under the covers—just thinking about his cock made me go all hot inside. You should’ve seen him; he looked so relaxed, so hot, so…other words I couldn’t possibly come up with due to the way he turned my brain to complete mush, but take my word for it, he looked perfect.

Still clutching the pillow to my torso with one hand, holding my camera with the other, I got back in next to him and finally let go of the pillow when I was back under the covers.

“You can’t still be shy, Zoe,” he said, coming up on his elbow and looking into my eyes with a small frown. “Not after last night.”

“It doesn’t just go away like that. Give me a break, there’s daylight now,” I huffed. “But forget about that. I’ve been dying to take your picture and I—”

“You took pictures of me at the game.”

“No, not like that—like this.” I put my hand on his chest. “I want to keep this.”

“Collecting memories, heartbeats,” he murmured, echoing what I’d said to him the first night he’d come to the apartment. Smiling, he pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. “Both of us?”

Excited beyond measure, I bit my lip and eagerly nodded.

He opened his arms and I dove in, deliriously happy to be there.

“Your arm must be dead by now. You should’ve pulled it away after I fell asleep.”

“It’s fine,” he said distractedly as he gathered me closer.

After I played with the ISO and shutter speed until it was all just right, I exhaled and lifted my Sony A7R II high up over us so we could both fit in the frame. The flip screen didn’t flip around so it was going to be a shot in the dark, but I was okay with anything at that moment.