Kendall Ryan

Alexa asked, her eyes flicking up to mine briefly before darting away again.

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

entire morning revolved around this thirty-second encounter. And if I timed it poorly and missed it? My whole day would be shit.

I needed it like a shot of adrenaline to start the day.

Every morning, careful to make sure my makeup was perfect and my hair was in place, I’d stop at the coffee shop on my way to work. I’d linger, staring at the rows of gourmet pastries and handcrafted mugs.

And every morning, promptly at ten to eight, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Sinful strolled inside and ordered a double shot of espresso to go.

Our routine had gone unchanged for the last ten months, and even though I cherished every second of our time together, we’

At this, he stops fidgeting and his eyes meet mine, an intensity to them that I haven’t yet seen in our elevator rendezvous. “I like that idea.”

Emmett calmed me when I would normally be panicking . . . and that damn smirk?

You’re here early.” There is no surprise in

his eyes spoke of wisdom and maturity

The heart was a strange and amazing muscle. You couldn’t live or love without it, but most people didn’t think about it often. Didn’t think about the steady, faithful organ that beat one hundred thousand times a day. Most people probably didn’t know that a woman’s heartbeat was faster than a man’s by about eight beats per minute, or that its four chambers pumped blood to every cell in the body except for the corneas.

Making us feel things we didn’t want to, say and do things we’d never planned on.

I wanted to fuck her