35. Deep

Axel

I stared at the beautiful woman beside me and, that's when I realized that we hadn’t kissed since the library. I wanted to take things slow, but when I was near Sloane, what I wanted was irrelevant.

I didn’t want her. I needed her. Desperately.

I needed her the way the ocean tides needed the moon, and I would give anything for her to feel a fraction of the same way toward me.

“Let go,” I repeated softly. “Listen to the music. Lose yourself in it.”

Uncertainty wavered across her features.

For Lydia, control was a necessity, not a luxury, but we all had to relinquish control sometime. Otherwise, our world would always be limited by the arbitrary boundaries we drew around it. “No one’s watching.” Her back faced the wall, and my body shielded hers from the dance floor. We pressed tight against each other, close enough for me to hear the battle waging between the steady thump, thump, thumps of her heart. “It’s just us, love.” In the background, fast-paced music segued into the smo