“Hi,” I said, shifting to glare at Jacob.

“Jacob, this is Caleb.”

“Hey,” he said, looking like I’d rained on his parade.

Maybe I’d pissed on it. Either way, it was my pleasure.

“Hi,” I muttered before turning back to her. “Are you done?”

“Yeah. Got finished early. Let me get my stuff.”

As I waited for her, Jacob and I gave each other the evil eye. That stoked the flames of my jealousy.

When Teagan rejoined me, I took her hand and gave Jacob a smug look before we left. It wasn’t my most mature moment, but I wasn’t thinking clearly.

I waited until we were outside to do what I really wanted to. I backed Teagan against the wall of the building and devoured her mouth, shoving my tongue inside not so gracefully, more possessively. She didn’t question it, though. Instead, she opened wide and let me have my way with her. She pulled my hair and moaned into my mouth. And now, finally, I had what I needed to calm my damn nerves.

After a few minutes, I reluctantly ripped myself away.

She covered her mouth. “What was that for?”

I gritted my teeth. “That was me bloody jealous as all hell.”

“You know I’m not into Jacob.”

“It’s not really him that’s bothering me—more the idea of him, future guys I won’t be able to protect you from because I won’t be here.” I shut my eyes in an attempt to grab my bearings. “You deserve the world, Teagan. Someone who appreciates how amazingly smart, funny, witty, and caring you are. You’re gonna make someone so happy someday.”

I hadn’t expected to say that, and I didn’t like the bitter taste those words left with me. It was unnatural to say them, because I didn’t want her with anyone else. I wanted her with me.

Her eyes shone with tears, and she echoed exactly what I’d been feeling inside. “I don’t want anyone else. I want you.”

What was I supposed to say to that? Sorry? You can’t have me?

I wanted her so damn badly right now—in every way.

“I just wish we could go somewhere right now,” she said.

I brushed a hair off her face. “Somewhere?”

“Somewhere away from everyone. Somewhere we could be alone.”

My heart beat faster by the second because I knew I was readying to give her what she wanted. “If we were totally alone, that would be very bad. You know that, right?”

“Yes, I do,” she answered immediately.

The raw sexual hunger in her eyes likely mirrored my own. I sometimes treated Teagan like an innocent girl when she was very much a woman—at least, in this moment she seemed to be. She needed me just as much as I needed her.

Pulling her by the hair gently toward me, I growled over her lips. “You want that, don’t you? You want me to lose control.”

The sounds of the city faded away.

“Yes. Very much.” Teagan trembled.

I rubbed my hands over her arms. “Jesus. You’re shaking.”

“You’ve been so scared to touch me, Caleb. I’m scared I’ll never know what it’s like to be with you, that I’ll always wonder. We’re running out of time, and I can’t focus on anything else. I feel like I’m going crazy.”

Taking her face in my hands, I brought her mouth to mine again as my heart pummeled against my chest. As our tongues collided, I knew I’d finally reached my breaking point. For the first time since I’d developed feelings for her, letting go felt like the only choice.

When I released her lips, I took her hand. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” I said.

She followed me down the street, our pace hurried. It was just a short walk to the Marriott Long Wharf Hotel.

When we arrived, I pushed through the revolving doors in a haze. My heart beat out of my chest as we approached the front desk. My ears pounded right along with it.

“Do you have an available room?”

Now it was up to fate. If they didn’t have a room, that would be a sign from the universe that this was all a mistake.

The clerk clicked on some keys. “Just one night?”

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Was that my head or my ears?

I cleared my throat. “Yes. One night.”

“One bed or two?”

I looked at Teagan. “One.”

When she smiled at me, I calmed down a bit.

He tapped on the computer some more and then looked up. “Card and ID, please.”

This is happening.

I squeezed Teagan’s hand, still unable to believe how reckless we were being right now. What is this life? One minute I was picking Teagan up for maybe a quick dinner or a movie, and the next we were about to go up to a hotel room and fuck. It felt terribly wrong—yet oddly right at the same time. There wasn’t any going back now.

“Here you go, sir.” He handed me a key card and went on about a WiFi password and other things that were completely going in one ear and out the other. Who could concentrate on meaningless information at a time like this?