These aren’t the heels for sprinting, so I half jog, half limp down the street to Tyler’s. In the dark, there’re a few sketchy-looking people, but they can’t crush my high. I ignore them, ignore everything until I’m under the streetlight in front of hisbuilding.
I hit the intercom, the buzzer ringing on the otherend.
Noanswer.
I take off toward Vanier. I’m going to have serious blisters from these shoes, but within minutes, the familiar building looms over me, graceful and stately in thedark.
The glass doors give under my hands, the light of the hallways beyond. My feet ache, and my lungs burn, and I don’t know what I’m running toward until a hoarse voice from down the hall has me grinding to ahalt.
“Annie.”
He’s dressed in the same clothes as earlier, and he fills the hall despite the trickle of students moving past him. His face is full of emotions—maybe the same ones I’m feeling that create this impossible expansion in mychest.
Tyler closes the distance betweenus.
“You weren’t at home,” I say as he comes to a stop inchesaway.
“I was looking for you.” His chest isn’t heaving like mine, but his eyes arewild.
I must look like a mess, my hair sticking to my neck and face, my skin flushed. He doesn’t seem to notice as his mouth curves with the ghost of a smile. “Congrats.”
I muster a cocky smile. “Was there ever anydoubt?”
He shakes his head, then before I can protest, he wraps his arms around mywaist.
He’s going to kiss me.Every nerve ending in my body tingles as I stare at his mouth. My hands land on his chest, and my eyes driftclosed.
A moment later, my eager lips brush his cheek as he tugs me into a hardhug.
“Oh,” I blurt. “Um. Thanks.” I try too late for an awkwardrecovery.
I almost think I’ve gotten away with it when his chest rumbles with laughter. “What did you think I was gonnado?”
“This,” I lie, my fingers still trapped against his pecs. “Exactlythis.”
But I can’t bring myself to care about the embarrassment, because being enveloped in his strength feels like home. His hand slides around my neck, fingers tangling in myhair.
I melt againsthim.
God, it’s good to be in hisarms.
When he pulls back an inch, our lips are a breathapart.
“I could kiss you now,” he murmurs, and my heart skips. “You’d kiss me back, too,” he continues in that beautiful voice. His mouth moves to brush my ear, lips skimming my skin and sending shivers throughme.
“You seem extraordinarily confident,” Imanage.
Students pass us, but I don’t know if they’re looking. I’m trapped in Tyler’sattention.
His chest is heat and muscle beneath my hands, and my fingers flex on his pecs through his thinshirt.
Tyler turns his face, lips grazing mine when he speaks. “A man who’s seen heaven is more dangerous than one who only believes. And I’ll never forget how it feels to have you needme.”
My fingers dig into his muscled arms.I want him so much Iache.
I cut a look past him to the students in the hallway, the ones who don’t know that everything in my life has been leading to this moment. Not only because of the showcase, but because of the man holdingme.
“You don’t have to remember it.” I take a deep breath, ready to dive off the cliff. “I need younow.”