Page 237 of Out of Bounds

Because I couldn’t watch her go.

“Ryan?”

“Huh?” I frowned at Zariah. “What?”

“Are you going to buy my plane ticket or what?”

“For what?”

She held up her hand. “When you fly Kassie out. I want to come with. Technically—when you think about it—I pushed the two of you together.”

“You actually stopped us from getting together,” I retorted. “You cockblocked me so hard, I lost a week of sleep over it.”

“But when youreallythink about it—”

With a groan, Kassie’s footsteps followed out of the bathroom. “Z. I’ll buy your plane ticket, good lord. Stop badgering him.”

“I’ll buy the plane ticket,” I muttered to Zariah and straightened my suit, pushing up to stand.

Zariah started to say something about economy seats but my eyes flickered back to the bathroom door when Kassie took her first steps on her new heels. The breath left my body. It wasbetter than the changing room. It was even better than the fantasies I used to have on sleepless nightsaboutthe changing room.

The black dress clung to her body. Presenting every curve, highlighting every place I’d touched and kissed and claimed for my own. Her dark hair fell in soft waves over her shoulders and her eyes were bright, watching me drink her in. There were little places where the fabric didn’t cover her skin all the way and I could see the soft purple and red, the hickeys, hidden under the dress from everyone but me, who knew where to look.

I was so hard, it fucking hurt.

“Oh, Kass,” Zariah whispered and walked around the couch. “You look…you look so…well-rested."

“She looks goddamn stunning,” I corrected with a growl.

“No, I mean…” With a deep breath, Zariah shook her head. “You look sohappy. And you were working so hard and—and—”

“Aw, Z.” Kassie reached to touch her arm.

Zariah flinched away from her. “Oh my god, don’t hug me. Girl, your makeup. Please.”

“I can’t touch your makeup?” I asked.

“Not untilafterthe ceremony,” Kassie warned me, motioning me along. “Cleo would kill us. Literally, she actually would physically harm us.”

How can I not kiss you?

I followed after her and nodded back at the room wishing us goodbye but I couldn’t get past the fact that I couldn’tkissmy woman. How was I supposed to show her how I felt about it?

“We need to go back,” I decided, wrapping an arm around her waist and tugging her towards the room.

“What? Why?”

“You are…fucking beautiful Kassandra Ragar and I can’t kiss you on the lips over it so I have to do the next best thing.”

“Ryan.” She threw a glance over her shoulder. “We don’t have time for—”

“You’re the one saying we’re going to be late now?”

She threw me a surprised glance. “Oh my god. I guess I am.”

“Tell that to me in forty-five seconds. Pull up your phone, put on the timer.”

Everyone glanced up in surprise back in the dorm while I dragged her off to her bedroom. Zariah most of all. Her eyebrows shot up but I waved her away, heading off with my girlfriend to her bedroom.

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