Take Me. Maisey Yates

start with tonight.”

      He looked at her, the pain in his eyes enough to tear a hole in her soul. She hated this. Hated that Sarah was dead. Hated that she couldn’t even pretend it wasn’t real, because she saw it all reflected on Travis’s face.

      “I don’t know,” he said.

      “Would the answer have been different if I’d wanted a response to the other questions?”

      He shook his head.

      “I thought not,” she said.

      The elevator doors slid open and revealed a long hallway with black doors. “This is a little Twilight Zone,” she said.

      He let out a choked laugh. “Sure is.” He looked at the tab hanging off the key. “We’re at the end of the hall.”

      As they got closer to the room, her throat tightened until, by the time they reached the door to their room, she could barely release the air from her lungs.

      He put the key in the lock and turned it slowly. And she couldn’t help but apply weight and significance to the action. Because it made her think of other things.

      And she was ashamed that it did. That the fact that they were going into a hotel room for the night, on the night when their friend had died, made her think of the possibility of sex.

      But then, maybe that was why she was thinking of sex.

      Because Sarah’s life had ended tonight. Unexpectedly. Shockingly.

      And at the moment, Sydney was more conscious than she’d ever been of the fact that time wasn’t infinite.

      That you couldn’t save everything for later. Couldn’t wait to have everything until after the next midterm. Until after graduation.

      Good sex. Great sex. The kind that curled your toes. A chance to act on the attraction that had simmered, deep inside of her, for years, for the man holding the door open for her.

      The only guarantee was tonight.

      What was wrong with living it like it might be the last? Sex was different than needing someone. Lust was different than dependency.