GARRISON

The kiss wasn't like the garage, and it wasn't like the terrace. Those had been desperate, fractured struggles against our own constraints—a chaotic surrender to a taboo we thought would drag our souls into the dirt.

This was a total, unbridled wildfire.

The second my mouth slammed against hers, a soft, broken sob of pure defeat escaped her throat. Roxie stopped fighting the inevitable. Her arms threw themselves around my neck, her pale fingers locking desperately into my hair to pull me down until the heat between us was completely suffocating. The cage my grandfather had built around us was gone, and the primitive, raw hunger I had been...