Page 91 of The Clinch
I straighten slowly, forcing myself upright. The stillness presses harder than the run ever did.
I look at him.
His hair is damp at the temples. His chest rises and falls now, finally human. His eyes go dark. Focused, intent.
“I believe I caught you,” he says quietly. Then, “You could’ve kept going.”
“No,” I manage. I know what he’s really saying.
His expression shifts. “That’s what I thought.”
Suddenly there’s too much in the space between us to pretend otherwise. My legs are still trembling, but I don’t move. I don’t step back. I don’t look away.
I wipe sweat from my jaw with the back of my hand. “So… what now?”
He studies me for longer than necessary. When he finally speaks, there’s certainty in his tone. “Now you stop running.”
The words land deep and stay there.
I step forward before I can stop myself. My hands land on his chest. His heart is pounding under my palms.
I should bolt.
Should laugh this off.
Put distance between us like I always do.
But I can’t.
I need him and hating that does nothing to make it less true.
Frustration spills out in a short thump against his sternum. Not hard. Just helpless.
“You’re so solid,” I whisper, angry at him for it. Angry at myself for wanting him.
“I know,” he says softly.
None of it separates cleanly anymore—the run, the heat, him.
I turn and unlock my apartment door with shaking hands. Then I look back at him.
“Are you coming?”
“Yeah.” His voice is a low rumble. “I’m coming.”
23
THE HOLD (LEO)
She doesn’t move as I take a step over the threshold. Just tilts her head, long brown layers cascading down her back and shoulders. The ink on her thigh—the fine lines of wings dark against her golden skin—peeks from beneath the hem of her denim shorts.
I’ve seen it many times.
When she takes off sprinting, when she’s too close one second and gone the next, and I’m left tracking the flash of it as if it’s something that explains her. Wings. Always wings. Escape etched into skin.
Now she’s not moving.
Looking at me like that—like she’s scared but done fighting it.
