Anger vibrated through me, setting off a wildfire inside my chest. How could she say that? After everything we’d been through, how could she—
“This was a mistake,” she said, going to walk away.
But I grabbed her arm, yanking her back to me.
We weren’t done.
Not until—
“Get off me, you… you overbearing asshole,” she spat with fire and fury.
The air crackled. My heart hammering against my chest, my pulse thudding in my ears.
This girl. She wasn’t only my kryptonite, she was my addiction. The one bad habit I’d never fully succumbed to but had never been able to quit either.
She was the only girl in the entire world with the power to ruin me.
And she was staring at me as if she meant every word.
As if she truly hated me.
“Phoenix, I—”
I grabbed the back of her neck and crashed my lips down on hers, swallowing her hateful, spineless words. She could hate me. She could despise and resent me. But it didn’t change the fact that I felt it.
I still felt the invisible tether binding us.
“Fuck, B,” I breathed, sliding my hand into her hair and angling her face up to give me better access to her lips. To her goddamn delectable mouth. She pressed her lips into a tight line, refusing to give me entry.
I smirked. “You want to play it like that, huh?” I leaned in, licking the corner of her mouth, tracing my tongue along the seam of her lips. She tried to resist, thrashing against my hold, but I tightened my grip in her hair, holding her at my mercy.
She could fight me all she wanted, but I knew the truth. Her body betrayed the lies she had spewed.
Harleigh wanted me.
Even if she hated me.
And right now, I didn’t care enough to stop.
“Open up for me, Birdie, let me in,” I whispered, kissing the corner of her mouth.
Her eyes simmered with anger, and I pulled back slightly to look at her, really look at her. Maybe I’d misread things. Maybe I’d seen what I wanted to see. Because she was a statue in my hold. A silent storm, waiting to strike.
Fuck, I’d messed up. I’d—
She crashed into me, her hands going around my shoulders, her mouth fusing to mine. Devouring me. A breathy moan spilled from her, and need pulsed through me as I slid my hand down her spine, pressing her closer, erasing every inch of space between us. I needed to feel her, feel the soft curves of her body, her smooth skin. Feel the steady beat of her heart beneath my palm.
Kissing Birdie, breathing her air, her taste, it was like coming home. It was the thing that had been missing for the last nine months.
Her.
Me.
Us.
“Fuck, B,” I breathed, cupping her face. Kissing her deeper, stroking my tongue against hers, exploring every inch of her mouth. Her skin.
I couldn’t get enough.