Page 43 of Defeated

I don’t know what happened to her mate for her to be alone being hunted, but mates are a thing that happens to you. You don’t choose them and they don’t choose you. The universe—fate—ties you together.

Dates are for people who choose each other, and I think I would very much choose to go on another date with Zoe.

“So what happens now?” she asks, reading my mind.

“You know what? I have no idea,” I admit, making her smile.

“We should probably go inside,” she says, making no move to do that.

“Probably.” My eyes flick to her lips. And maybe it’s just in my head, but I’m almost positive she leans a quarter of an inch toward me.

Before I can do anything about it, she unbuckles her seatbelt and opens her door.

I follow her out, unlock Colton’s front door, and let her inside.

“It’s late,” she says, backing up a step. “I should?—”

“Of course,” I interrupt. “Good night.”

She strides through the entryway and up the stairs.

I watch her disappear from view and I kick myself for not kissing her again, because in the truck, for just a moment, I think she wanted me to.

Shaking my head as I rue my missed opportunity, I turn to close the front door, listening to Zoe’s footsteps reach the top of the staircase.

They stop.

I peer up the stairs, wondering if something is wrong for her to have stopped like that. I’m getting ready to call out or go up there myself when her footsteps thump back down the stairs again.

She looks at me from the foot of the staircase, fingers twisting together. Her expression is impossible to decipher. “If I said you kissing me made me happy, what would you say?”

Easy.

I cross the entryway toward her, catching the exact moment she holds her breath as I cradle the back of her head and draw her toward me, kissing her like I wanted to in the truck.

15

ZOE

Chris wraps his arm around me and turns to press me against the hallway wall. At no point does he stop kissing me.

I skim my hands up his arms, looping them around his shoulders as I return his kiss. It’s only when he leans his hips against mine that I realize how far things could go if I don’t put a stop to them now.

I break the kiss.

We’re both breathing hard as we study each other.

“Too much?” His voice is husky.

I start to nod and then hesitate.

He cradles my jaw and I’m leaning into his touch before I realize it. “If I’ve crossed over from incompetent first date to asshole, feel free to use your knee.”

I smile. They come so easily around him. “You’re not an asshole.”

But I am.

My smile fades. “I’m not free.”

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