Chapter Two

**Chapter 2: When Everything Breaks**

MERIS

He didn't say anything. He didn't move. Those dark eyes held mine from behind the mask, and the ballroom noise fell away until there was nothing but the quiet between us and the sound of applause I was trying very hard not to hear.

The wine was doing something unhinged to my judgment. I knew that. I also knew that the way he was looking at me felt less like a stranger and more like something I'd misplaced a long time ago.

I shook my head, pulled back from him, and walked.

Out of the hall. Into the night.

I didn't look back, but I felt his eyes follow me the entire way, steady and unblinking, like a hand resting on the back of my neck.

I wanted him to come after me, stop me, give me a hug, console me, tell me it was going to be alright, just do something, anything that wouldn't make me go insane.

The car park was dark and half empty. I exhaled slowly, tipping my head back, letting the cool air hit my face. The wine hummed softly through me. The grief was still there, sitting at the center of my chest like something swallowed whole, but it hadn't broken the surface yet. I wasn't going to let it.

Then a hand grabbed me from behind.

"What the hell…"

I was already over his shoulder before I finished the word, my hands slamming against his back, hitting something solid that didn't flinch about my weight.

"You asked me to kiss you." His voice was low and unhurried. "I don't like being interrupted." My hands hung in the air as the realization hit me.

He set me down, but he didn't step back. He caged me between his body and the sleek black car behind me, both hands braced on either side of my head, and even with the mask still on, I could see his eyes clearly in the dark, burning into mine.

Dark. But familiar.

He had followed me, and the thought made my legs squirm with anticipation. I pushed the thought away.

"I don't even know you," I said. My heart was making a complete fool of itself.

"You didn't know me before you asked me to kiss you either." His breath was warm against my skin. "That's not what matters now."

Before I could answer, his mouth found mine.

It wasn't soft. It wasn't tentative. It was the kind of kiss that takes without asking and gives back something you hadn't known you needed, and it pulled the breath out of my lungs. His hands pressed me closer, solid and sure, and I felt the hard warmth of his chest against me, and somewhere in the back of my mind I thought, with absolute clarity: I have never been kissed like this.

Not once. Not by anyone.

A little gasp escaped my lips as I felt his hands press against my waist, his torso pushing closer toward me, making me feel how hard he was against me.

His lips dragged from my mouth to my tongue. I loved how he devilishly consumed me, how his tongue pushed past my teeth and claimed every inch of my tongue.

My hands pushed up quickly, pulling him toward me as he kissed me torturously.

He went back to kissing my neck, and when his teeth grazed the mark at my neck, Connor's mark, the mark I'd been carrying for two years, a moan left my lips that I'd never heard myself make before. Something electric detonated low in my body. My fingers curled into his jacket.

My lips parted as it sent a mind-blowing sweetness that reached my core, making my toes curl and my thighs press together as I tried to suppress my feelings. It felt so good. I moaned out loudly, taking in everything he had to give me.

He groaned against my skin, low and rough, and my knees nearly gave up.

I didn't care that we were in a car park. I didn't care that anyone could walk past. I needed to feel something that wasn't grief, and this, this was the furthest thing from grief I'd ever touched.

His mouth moved lower.

I had never felt this pull between my legs as his tongue trailed down my throat. His hands pressed me against the car, half of my body clinging for dear life against the metal, at his mercy as he held onto me.

His lips moved against the swell of my breast, his teeth grazing against my flesh as I felt his hands push my half-exposed clothing aside, leaving me barely covered beneath him.

"Mmmh…"

I moaned as his tongue trailed over my nipples. The cool breeze hitting my skin, combined with his lips on one nipple and his hands kneading the other tenderly, sent me shrieking like an unhinged animal.

"Oh shit!" I threw my head back and moaned loudly as I couldn't hold in the pleasure between my thighs. I was at the edge of giving up.

Then my phone rang out loudly.

I ignored it. It rang again.

I pushed him back, and he groaned, my chest heaving, his hands not leaving my waist as I grabbed my phone. A strange number appeared on my screen. Slowly, I answered with shaking hands.

"Hello. Is this Meris Volkov?"

"Yes," I whispered.

"Your mother is currently at the hospital. The cancer has hit her badly this time. We need you here right now."

Everything stopped.