“Chloe!” he yelled after me.

I ignored him, continuing my run to the gap in the fence. When I made it through, I hit the trail and jogged without looking back. Heavy steps crushed the gravel behind me, and I gasped, finally peering over my shoulder, spotting Theo getting closer.

I picked up my pace, but I was no match for him, the man that used to play soccer when he was in high school. The man in such fine, sculpted shape. That man, period. His hand wrapped around my wrist when he made it by my side, spinning me in his direction.

I instantly protested, struggling to yank away. “Theo! I’m done! Why can’t you just leave me alone!?”

His eyes glistened, full of an unexplainable ache. Nostrils flared, he watched as I clawed and scratched at his hand, tears threatening to spill from my eyes. “You don’t feel bad about this?” he asked angrily, brows furrowed

“About what!?”

“About this! This, Chloe!”

My fighting came to a cease, confusion taking anger’s place. Then, I realized what he meant. As he stepped forward, brought a hand to my waist, and tugged me in, I figured it all out. This, as in the foundation we lived on. The reason we’d met in the first place.

The guilt.

The shame.

The bad.

The good that felt so horribly wrong.

He watched me with intense brown eyes. My bottom lip trembled, and when he noticed, he reached up, pressing the pad of his forefinger on the center of my mouth to stop it. Then, before I knew it, his face inched forward, and his mouth found mine. A groan rumbled deep in his throat as his lips collided with mine.

My body reacted way differently than it should have. Instead of fighting—instead of protesting and shoving him away—I sank into his arms, and he picked me up. My legs hooked around his waist, hands cupping his smooth cheek. The scruff on his unshaven face rubbed across the smoothness of my palms, his damp lips consuming me. He stumbled into the shade. My back bumped against a tree, but his mouth didn’t dare pull away from mine.

His cock grinded between my legs, his arousal making me crave every solid inch of him all over again. I moaned, my mind begging me to tell him to stop but my body refusing, falling deep into this lust. Into his clutches.

In that moment, I felt like we couldn’t be stopped, like years of avoidance and disregard had finally caught up to us—like life was telling us we would never forget about each other. But then, in just the same amount of time, I remembered last night and the pain I felt when I saw him walk into that house with the girl.

“Stop, Theo.” I shoved his face away.

His head traveled down, lips pressing on the crook of my neck. “I don’t know what it is about this fucking park,” he growled. “Maybe it’s the way the sunlight bounces off your skin when you run through the trail.” His head lifted, gaze matching mine. “Or maybe it’s because when it comes to this place, we aren’t restrained. And no one can see. No one cares. It’s our place…” His finger came to my chin, tilting it up. His lips then landed on my cheek, and he kissed me tenderly, blinking slowly before his eyes dropped. He then placed my feet on the ground, running his fingers through his damp, raven hair.

I felt like I’d been ripped right away from him. I wanted him to stop, to listen, but I didn’t want him away from me. I moved forward, placing my hand on his chest. “Why didn’t you text me?” I whispered. He struggled with words, eyes avoiding mine. I caught his face in my hands, forcing him to look at me. “Why?”

“You know why, Chloe.”

“You thought of Izzy?”

“I thought of you.”

I frowned. “No. You didn’t think of me.”

Confusion made his face warp.

“If you had thought about me, we wouldn’t be here. You would have known that I was actually looking forward to that text—a location. A place to meet.”

“I can’t fucking hurt you, Chloe. Don’t you understand that the only thing that comes out of this is pain? Someone will get hurt in the end…”

“Don’t you think I know that? Yes, it’s a risk—”

“A risk we shouldn’t even try to take.”

I sighed, mildly agitated. “If we don’t, we’ll keep ending up like this—in this fucking park, fighting hard not to touch each other.” His lips pressed, but I continued. “If we don’t do anything about it, every time we see each other, it will result in a situation like this.”

He looked down. “Fucking you in the park…”

“You touching me,” I added.

“Unable to fight my feelings…”

“Me craving every single part of you… never forgetting what we did.”

Theo stepped forward, looking down at me, jaw locked. His smoldering brown eyes bolted with mine. With slow, cautious action, he lifted his arm, bringing his hand to my face. He cupped my cheek, and his head lifted as he studied my face, breath bated.

My breath caught as well, the air between us impenetrable. The air surrounding us was hot and thick, weighing us down. Holding us in this moment. Using the pad of his thumb, he stroked my cheek, pressing his forehead to mine.

“I can’t stay away from you,” he said, voice low and deep. My core hummed in recognition of this voice, the deep and husky one that made my pulse accelerate and my insides overheat. “I try so hard to fight it, but it’s clear now.” He held my face tighter. “It’s so fucking clear now, Chloe. Avoiding you is damn near impossible.”

“So… what do we do?” My voice was faint.

He looked me over, and in that moment, it seemed he thought of every possible thing that could go wrong—every disaster that could happen. But when it came down to the wire, he had the same thought in mind as I did. “We hope this is just a phase and try to get over each other.”

“Just this summer?”

His eyes became soft. “Just one summer.” After he said that, his head moved down, and his mouth found the lips he’d been dying to get a taste of. This time, I didn’t fight him. I didn’t ward him off or push away. I fell deep into Theo’s black sea because it’d been so long since I felt this. It wasn’t scary, and it wasn’t sticky or dark. I… liked it. The dark, clashing waves he created within me, the feeling of floating, drifting—so far gone while with him.

I’d wanted this to happen for years now. Theo Black in front of me, on top of me, taking me. Making me his. Owning me like he did the very first night we attempted this crazy, fucked-up relationship.

In no time, we became antsy. Hands all over, bodies grinding, hearts pounding. His hands became greedy, tearing at my shorts and then yanking my tank top over my head. I tore at his shorts, and when his cock sprung free, I gripped it, grinning behind our kiss.

His groan was ferocious, body in need of more. Hungrily, he kissed me while my legs snaked around his hips, and he sank into me. A sharp gasp brushed by parted lips, my mind no longer crowded but focused on this solitary moment. His strokes were slow and rigid, our breathing heavy. Our foreheads were touching, my arms laced around his neck, and our lips only a breadth away.

His face turned as hard as stone as he watched me, as if it’d been years since he wanted this and now that he had it, he couldn’t fuck it up. He wanted to take it slow, but I could tell he wanted to fuck me until I couldn’t take anymore.

“Talk to me, baby,” he breathed in my ear. “Tell me how long you’ve waited for this.”

“Too long,” I breathed, tugging him closer.

“You didn’t come home…” He stroked faster, panting deep. “You avoided me for three years, Little Knight. Such a bad girl, making me suffer like that.”

“I… I didn’t know how to face you—what to say.”

Reaching up, he gripped my face and forced my eyes on his. “You face me like this,” he growled, nostrils flaring. “With my dick deep inside you and your eyes right on mine. Like this, Chloe,” he grunted, slamming into me. “Like you’ve always wanted.”