Page 95 of Catch the Sun

I start running again.

This time I run toward him. I runtohim. The jaded part of me sprints alongside me with heaving lungs and an achy chest, and I try to beat her in this heartrending race I’ve never been able to outrun before.

She’s a worthy competitor, but I leave her in the dust.

I run until I catch him.

I run until I throw my arms around his neck, lift up on my toes, and pull his face to mine as the song reaches its climax and my heart bottoms out of me.

I win.

My trophy is in the way his hands fly out and cup my face. The gold medal lies within the first brush of his lips against mine.

Max’s breath hitches and his mouth instinctively parts to let me in. Our tongues touch, gentle at first. The first note of a song or a single raindrop escaping the clouds. I make a whimpering sound to match the hitch of his breath, not expecting the heat that funnels through me from a single swoop of his tongue.

His tongue flicks mine one more time, then pulls away, and we both go still, waiting, breathless. He inches back slightly, his eyes closed, grazing only our lips together. “This is my first kiss,” he murmurs against my mouth as one hand curls around the back of my head and he draws our foreheads together.

“Mine, too,” I whisper back, the words shaky, my legs shakier.

My first kiss.

Ourfirst kiss.

His eyes open briefly before he moves back in and presses our lips together. My hands dive into his hair, and I fist the night-dark strands while he parts my lips with his tongue. I open for him. I let him in entirely, and it’s no longer a first note or a wayward raindrop. It’s a crescendo. A storm. Lightning, thunder, a heart-stopping orchestra.

I moan when our tongues tangle hotly.

All hesitation is snuffed out.

Everything feels perfectly, magicallyright.

I’ve never felt anything like it before.

Max spins me around and braces me against the guardrail, one hand on my jaw, the other sliding into my mess of loose curls as he squeezes his fist and holds me to him. His tongue strokes against mine, hungry as it explores my mouth. The taste of peppermint gum sets my senses ablaze, fusing with the smell of his earthy cologne and a trace of pine in the air. Our faces angle, tasting deeper, and my leg draws up to link around his upper thigh. A groan rumbles in his throat as we lick and seek and savor. I pull at his hair and he pulls at mine. I grind against him, feeling his erection dig into the juncture between my legs. My head falls back with a gasp, and he trails open-mouthed kisses down the side of my throat. I press further into him, chasing the feeling. Tingles bloom and climb,lighting me up. Wetness slicks my underwear as my dress rides up my thighs.

I’m weightless and floating. Nothing else exists. My whole body trembles as his tongue slides up my neck and he nicks my jaw with his teeth on a ragged exhale.

I want to keep kissing him. I never want to stop.

“Max,” I rasp, my grip loosening on his hair as my fingers sift and touch.

His lips are pink and swollen, glistening under the starlight from our kisses. Drowsy, half-lidded eyes stare back at me as he trails his hands down to my hips and tugs me closer. “You taste so good.”

“I like kissing you.”

“We don’t have to stop.”

My mind is dizzy, my eyelids fluttering closed as I drag my hands to his shoulders and hang on to him. “I don’t want to.”

He kisses my forehead. “Come here.”

Max lowers himself to sit on the bridge and pulls me into his lap, his back against the railing and my chest flush with his. I cradle his stubbled cheeks in my palms as I straddle him, the hardness between his legs setting me on fire.

We kiss again. We kiss until time freezes, the earth stops spinning, and his tongue in my mouth is all that exists.

I’m breathless when I pull back, buzzing all over. Achy for more. I graze my fingertips down his cheek, the bristles tickling my skin. When his light-blueeyes lift, a vision flashes through my mind. I see a glimpse of a future so different from the one I always imagined. Stargazing in open fields, dancing under the moon, and magical kisses above a slow-gliding stream as music fills the air. “Your eyes,” I murmur, cupping his cheek with one hand. “They make me feel seen.”

He smiles, blinking slowly like he’s drunk on my words, my touch.

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