Too Late to Love Me novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Landing

Zachary walked down three steps and stopped, close enough to touch.

He looked at my mouth, red and swollen, and then at the man whose collar I still held.

"Don't stop on my account," he said.

His voice shook, and he tried to cover it with a laugh.

"I only came for my allowance."

"You were in the studio doorway," I said.

"I have you on tape."

"I know."

"Regan wanted to see how it felt."

He said it as if it were a joke he'd heard, and his eyes went to Zane.

"Enjoy her," he told him.

"You're the version of me who loses."

"I know," Zane said quietly.

"That's why I'm here."

Zachary's face did something complicated.

Then he pushed past us and went down the stairs, and the fire door at the bottom boomed shut.

I was still holding Zane's collar.

I let it go, and my hand was trembling.

"Take me home," I said.

"June."

"Take me home, Zane."

We didn't speak on the bus.

I sat with my knee against his knee, and neither of us moved it.

Hattie's note on the fridge said SCULPTURE STUDIO ALL DAY, BE GOOD OR BE QUIET.

I laughed once, and it came out like a sob.

I locked the door behind us and turned around.

He stood in the middle of the room in the gray light with his coat still on, watching me, hands open at his sides.

"You made rules," he said.

"I'm breaking them."

"All of them?"

"The first one."

I crossed the room and took the lapels of his coat and pushed it off his shoulders.

It fell on the floor with a heavy wet sound.

He let me.

His breath was coming fast, and under my palms his heart was running.

"I've wanted you for three years in a room with only your name in it," he said, very low.

"I didn't know it was possible to want a person this much."

"Tell me what you want."

"I want you to stop talking," I said, and pulled his shirt up over his head.

His chest was lean and hard, a scar below the ribs I had never seen on Zachary.

I put my mouth on it, and he made a rough sound.

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