Lola woke to the dim light of dawn slipping through the blinds, painting pale lines across the bed. For a moment, she lay still, her body heavy with exhaustion, her heart beating too fast for someone just waking up. Her mind was a blur of last night the shouting, the confession, the kiss she should
The door slammed shut with a force that seemed to echo through Lola’s bones. For a long moment, she just stood there, staring at the wood as if willing it to swing open again. The silence afterward was deafening, broken only by the ragged sound of her own breathing. Her knees gave out first. She sa
The knock came again, sharper this time, rattling through the small dorm room like a gunshot. “Lola!” Chris’s voice was closer now, insistent. “I’m not leaving until you answer.” Her pulse skittered, her palm hovering over the knob. Every muscle in her body screamed at her to move, to do something
The air between them still vibrated from the weight of their kiss, heavy with a charge that neither dared to break. Lola’s lips tingled, her breath shallow, her body thrumming with a dangerous rhythm she hadn’t known she was capable of feeling. He hadn’t moved far just far enough that the whisper o
For a long, breathless moment, there was nothing but the sound of lips, ragged breaths, and the wild rhythm of their hearts. When they finally broke apart, both panting, Lola pressed her forehead to his chest, her eyes squeezed shut. “What are we doing?” she whispered, half to herself. “This can’t
The room felt too small for both of them. Lola paced the narrow space, her arms crossed tight, while he stood near the door, watching her with that same unyielding intensity that made her chest ache. “You don’t understand,” she said, her voice sharp, frayed at the edges. “You can fight with Chris,