Chapter 161: Chapter 161 - Slow Down
The kiss was soft at first.
Careful.
Zac held back for one breath, maybe two.
Roxie felt it in the way his mouth stayed gentle and his hand rested at her waist like he was afraid the wrong touch would send her back into the dark place Claire had left inside her.
She pulled away just enough to breathe. "Zac."
His eyes opened.
"My cheek hurts," she whispered. "My mouth is fine."
His jaw moved once.
The change in him was quick. His gaze dropped to her lips, then lifted to her eyes. He still looked angry. Still scared. Still too close to every bad idea he had been trying to swallow since the porch.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." Her fingers tightened in his hoodie. "I’ll tell you when to stop."
For a second, he only stared at her.
Then he moved.
His hand slid to the back of her neck, careful of the swollen side of her face but firm everywhere else, and his mouth came back to hers harder.
Roxie’s breath caught.
Zac heard it and pulled her closer.
The blanket twisted between them. Her knee hit his thigh. His cap slipped from her lap and dropped somewhere behind her. His arm wrapped around her waist, and the space he had been leaving between them disappeared.
The kiss changed fast.
His mouth opened over hers, warmer, rougher, full of the impatience he had been holding behind his teeth. Roxie grabbed the front of his hoodie, and he answered by pulling her in until her hand pressed flat to his chest.
His heart was beating hard.
She felt it under her palm.
Zac kissed her like he wanted her to feel that too.
Roxie leaned into him, and his grip tightened at her waist. His fingers bunched the hoodie there, dragging the fabric against her skin. She liked the pressure. She liked that he wanted close and had stopped pretending he could be calm about it.
The cold air moved around them, but Zac was warm everywhere.
His mouth left hers and moved to the unhurt side of her jaw.
Roxie went still for half a second.
Zac slowed, his lips hovering near her skin.
She swallowed. "Keep going."
His breath hitched.
Then his mouth touched her jaw again.
Slow first.
Then firmer.
Roxie’s eyes closed. Her fingers dug into his hoodie. The feeling shot down her neck and into her stomach, sharper than kissing his mouth. She tilted her head without thinking, giving him more room.
Zac noticed.
His hand tightened at her waist.
A small smile brushed against her skin before he kissed lower, just beneath her ear.
Roxie’s body reacted before she could stop it. Her shoulders loosened, her chest pressed closer, and her fingers slid into his hair.
Zac made a low sound against her neck.
That sound went straight through her.
She tugged his hair again.
This time, on purpose.
His mouth stopped against her skin.
His breathing turned rough.
Then he grabbed her waist and pulled her across him.
The move was quick. A little rough. Very Zac.
Roxie gasped as she ended up half on his lap, one knee beside his thigh, one hand braced on his chest. The truck bed was hard under her shin. The blanket tangled around her leg. Zac’s back hit the side of the truck bed, and his hands stayed on her waist, holding her there like he had already decided he liked her right where she was.
Their faces were inches apart.
The air between them turned hot.
Zac’s eyes dropped to where she sat against him.
Then back to her face.
His hands flexed once.
Roxie’s pulse kicked.
She waited for him to say something smug. Something stupid. Something that would make her shove him.
He kissed her instead.
Hard.
Roxie’s hand slid from his chest to his shoulder. Zac pulled her down into him, and the kiss turned messy. His mouth moved like he had been waiting for permission to stop thinking. His tongue brushed hers, and the sound that left her made his grip tighten.
The heat was different from the last time.
Last time, he had come to her room bruised from the game and burning with everything he refused to say.
Tonight, he had watched another boy bring her home. He had seen the mark on her face. He had stood on her porch ready to explode for her.
All of that was still in him.
Roxie felt it in the kiss.
His jealousy. His anger. His relief. His want.
It was ugly in places.
It was honest.
His hand slid up her back over the hoodie and pressed between her shoulder blades, pulling her chest closer to his. Her body followed. She felt the hard line of his thigh beneath her, the heat of his chest under her palm, the rough rise of his breathing every time she moved.
His lips moved against the side of her neck, hot and slow.
Roxie’s fingers tightened in his hair. He made that sound again, rougher now, and his head tipped back when she pulled.
She liked that.
She liked making him lose track of himself.
She liked that his perfect quarterback face was gone and this version of him was messy-haired, red-mouthed, breathing hard under her hands.
Roxie kissed his jaw. Then the side of his neck.
Zac’s hands jerked at her waist.
His head fell back against the truck bed wall for one second.
The sight of him like that sent heat through her whole body.
She kissed him there again.
His grip tightened.
"Roxie," he said, low and rough.
That was all.
Just her name.
It sounded like warning.
It sounded like wanting.
She lifted her head, and he caught her mouth with his before she could speak.
The kiss came harder this time. His arm locked around her, and Roxie let him pull her fully against him. Her knee slipped, and she shifted to steady herself. The movement dragged her lower on his lap.
Zac froze.
His breath stopped.
Roxie felt it too.
The pressure between them.
The way his body reacted under hers.
The way her own body answered with heat low in her stomach.
For a second, neither of them moved.
Then Zac’s hand slid to her hip.
His fingers dug in through the hoodie.
Roxie looked at him.
His face was flushed. His mouth was swollen from kissing her. His eyes were dark and fixed on hers like he was barely holding himself in place.
He shifted once beneath her, small and controlled, but it still dragged a warm line of pressure through her.
Roxie’s breath broke.
Zac’s eyes lowered to her mouth.
Then he did it again.
Slower.
Her fingers tightened on his shoulders.
The friction stayed muted through their clothes, but it was enough. Enough to make her body lean into him. Enough to make her forget the cold air. Enough to make Zac’s jaw go tight like he had just crossed into a part of the kiss he had been trying to avoid and wanted anyway.
He kissed her before either of them could think.
Roxie kissed him back.
Their mouths met rougher now, open and uneven. Zac’s hand stayed at her hip, guiding without forcing. Roxie moved with him once, unsure and clumsy, and the pressure hit better the second time.
She gasped into his mouth.
Zac stopped breathing for half a second.
Then he groaned and pulled her closer.
The sound made her dizzy.
The blanket slid down her shoulder. Cold air hit her neck. Zac ignored it this time. His mouth went there instead, kissing the warm skin beneath her jaw, then lower, while his hand kept her close against his lap.
Roxie’s head tipped back.
The stars blurred above them.
Her body felt awake now, too awake, every place he touched turning sharp. His hand at her hip. His mouth at her neck. His chest under her hand. The hard press of him beneath the layers between them.
Her thoughts scattered.
Claire faded.
The park faded.
The house faded.
There was only Zac, and the rough sound of his breathing, and the fact that he wanted her so badly he was starting to lose the edges of himself.
Roxie wanted that.
She wanted him to stop looking at her like she was only hurt.
Zac’s head dropped to her shoulder.
His fingers dug into her hip.
"Fuck," he muttered against the hoodie.
The word sent heat through her.
She did it again.
Zac’s hips lifted, meeting her before he caught himself.
Both of them froze.
His hand gripped her waist hard, then loosened.
His breathing was rough against her neck.
For the first time, he looked unsure in a way that had nothing to do with being gentle.
He wanted more.
She could feel it.
He wanted it enough that stopping looked painful.
That was the part that made him feel like Zac again. No perfect answer. No calm speech. Just an eighteen-year-old boy with too much heat in his body and the girl he wanted sitting across his lap under a blanket at Raven’s Point.
Roxie stayed close, forehead resting near his.
His mouth brushed hers once. Then again.
The kiss slowed, but the heat stayed there, trapped between them.
Zac’s hand moved up her back, then down to her hip again. He seemed to realize he had done it and made a frustrated sound under his breath.
Roxie almost smiled.
He was trying to behave.
Barely.
She kissed the corner of his mouth.
He chased her lips and caught them.
The kiss deepened again for a few seconds, heavy and warm, then he pulled back with effort written all over his face.
His forehead dropped against hers.
"We have to slow down," he said, voice rough.
Roxie swallowed. "Want to?"
"No."
The answer hit her hard.
Zac’s laugh came out strained. "That’s the problem."
She stared at him.
His hair was ruined from her hands. His mouth was red. His chest moved hard under her palm. The cocky boy was still there, but cracked open by wanting her.
Roxie liked him like this more than she should have.
She touched his jaw. "You look like you hate yourself right now."
"I hate myself a little."
"Because you want me?"
His eyes lifted to hers.
"No," he said. "Because I want you and I know this is not what you need right now."
"It was."
Zac leaned his head back against the truck bed and dragged in a breath. "I’m glad."
Roxie stayed on him, lighter now, her hand resting on his chest. His heart still pounded under her palm.
She looked at her hand there.
Zac covered it with his.
Neither of them spoke for a while.
The cold finally started to reach her. Her legs shivered beneath the blanket.
Zac saw it and grabbed his cap from behind her. He put it back on her head, tugging the brim low over her eyes.
Roxie pushed it up. "Seriously?"
"You looked too pretty. It was making things worse."
Her face warmed. "That was terrible."
"You blushed."
"It’s cold."
"You’re lying."
She slid off his lap and settled beside him before he could look more pleased with himself.
Zac pulled the blanket around both of them and kept his arm around her waist. The touch was still firm. Still a little possessive. Nothing about him felt perfectly controlled anymore.
That helped.
Roxie leaned into his side.
Her cheek hurt.
Her chest hurt.
Her lips felt warm, and the rest of her body still hummed from sitting across him.
She touched her mouth with two fingers.
Zac noticed. "Thinking about me?"
"Thinking about pushing you off the truck."
"You’d miss me."
She turned her head and glared at him.
He looked far too pleased.
Roxie hated that she wanted to kiss him again.
So she did.
One more time.
Shorter than before, but still heated enough that Zac’s hand tightened at her waist.
When she pulled back, he followed her for half a second before catching himself.
Greedy.
Messy.
Real.
Roxie smiled.
Zac saw it and smiled too, smug and breathless and still a little wrecked.
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