Page 27 of Siren Problems
“Stop.”
“Make me.”
And that’s the moment I break.
I don’t know who moves first.
Maybe her.
Maybe me.
But suddenly, we’re crashing together in the narrow space between bar stools and bad judgment. Her mouth finds mine, hot and sweet and desperate. Her hands are in my hair. Mine are gripping her waist like I’ve forgotten how to let go.
The noise of the bar fades.
All I hear is her.
All Iwantis her.
But just as suddenly, I pull back.
Hard.
She stumbles, blinking.
“What—?”
“I can’t.”
The words hurt.
Her expression shifts, from dazed to something like hurt.
“I didn’t mean to—” she starts.
“No,” I say, softer now. “I wanted to. Too much.”
She swallows. Her voice goes quiet. “Then why?—?”
“Because if I fall for you,” I whisper, “the curse doesn’t justreturn.It finishes what it started.”
She stares at me.
And I leave before I say anything else that could kill us both.
The night air hits me like a wave of ice.
Sharp. Punishing.
It should help. It doesn’t.
I don’t get far—just around the corner of Kai’s bar, into the alley that runs along the bluffside. My palms hit the wall. I lean there, chest heaving, hands braced like they’re the only things keeping me upright.
She kissed me.
I kissed her.
And gods, I wanted it. I still want it.
