My brain is on thick ice. I’m staring at Will like maybe he’ll poof and be gone-just like that, but somehow I know he’s sincere.  

“Sooo, we’re like...soulmates then.” His eyebrows shoot up his face as he slides his foot across the hardwood.

I shake my head firmly, then shrug. “I...” I glance at my toes on the floor. “...ahuh.”

“Hmm.” His feet move towards me with little steps, like he’s scared or something. “I’ve never been much of a dog person.”

Good grief. I roll my eyes up at him. He really knows how to hold on to a moment. Will gives me a tight smile before suddenly reaching down and patting my hair.

“Oh my god.” I grit my teeth and release a heavy sigh.

“Good boy.” His voice is so deep suddenly that it makes me flinch away from his touch. When he starts giggling, I swat his hand off me. “Wanna try kissing?” He sounds far too amused, and it instantly pisses me off.

“Nope.”

“But if we’re soulmates, shouldn’t we at least-?”

“No.” I stomp towards the front door, but Will skips on ahead and blocks my exit. His lips curl inward in a painfully obvious attempt to tuck away a smile as I fail to hide how much I’m struggling with whatever the hell this is.

“Move,” I grunt, a slight headache pressing against my temples.

“Make me,” he whispers while covering his mouth with slender fingers.

“What’re you, six?” I huff, turning down the hallway. There’s gotta be another way out of here. But I end up in his bedroom with nowhere else to goddamn go. Damnit.

“Well, aren’t you forward.” Will isn’t even trying to hide how much he’s enjoying this. “I figured you’d prefer to start slow, what with your lack of experience and-”

“Stop following me.” I interrupt, unable to even look at him. He knows way too much about me.

“You’re standing in my bedroom after spending the night in my bed without an invitation, and suddenly I’m infringing on your personal space?” His hands fall to his sides as he drops his head in an unbearably sweet little laugh.

“I didn’t mean...I don’t want to...um-!” I slap my hands over my eyes in frustration as heat spreads to my cheeks.

“I just thought we could at least try kissing, since we’re gonna be together forever or whatsit. It’s the best way to see if there’s a connection, and you know…it could get pretty boring if we never do anything-” He stops short at the look on my face as my hands slide down, and I know he’s trying very hard not to laugh at me again.

“Why now.” I grunt more as a statement than a question.

“Just to verify if there’s anything...there.” He shrugs and gives me a smile that only pulls to the right side of his mouth.

“I’m probably bad at it.” I dismiss him by shoving my hands in my pockets and turning to stare blankly out the window. Should I just jump through the glass?

“Psh.” Will’s little chuckle brings heat to the skin on my neck in a split second. “Just keep your fangs out of the equation and you’ll do fine.”

I spin around in annoyance.

“That’s enough wolf jokes-”

He cuts me off by sucking the rest of the sentence from my lips. His mouth is incredibly warm and soft, and the sudden closeness of him on me like this snaps reflexes I didn’t even know I had into action.

So when he reaches his fingers into my hair, I part my mouth in surprise. I’m mid-blink up at his bangs tickling the bridge of my nose when Will takes my miniature gasp as an invitation to explore me further, and I guess it really is. I can’t even think of fleeing out the window as his tongue slips between my lips to twist around mine. He tastes like mint toothpaste and coffee and brown sugar, and suddenly I’m hungry all over again, but in a different way.

I don’t even realize I’m moving until my back connects with the bedroom wall. My hands grasp his hips to smash all of him against me before I can think not to, and then a part of me just…shuts off. Blood hurtles down my body like a damn waterfall, and I can’t help it. I can’t stop. I can’t even see anymore. I’m completely undone.

When Will pulls his mouth from mine, my lips latch to his neck in my desperation to stay connected. His skin is sweet like maple syrup, and I don’t want to ever detach. I don’t want air-I want to mark him. Bite him. Make him mine here and now and never stop touching him. My pulse overwhelms me when I feel his beneath my tongue, and it’s like my heartbeat is right behind my eyes. Every throb threatens to take out my brain entirely, and at this point I wouldn’t even mind. I’d welcome the relief.

Will’s soft whimpers crash into the walls of my head, and I melt right into him as his fingers slide down my chest. The sound of him getting breathless wipes away every other thought, and my hands move lower on his hips until I’m gripping the fabric of his sweatpants. But when I start to tug on the waist, he takes my wrists and pushes them against the wall.

“You go down there and you’ll get a lot more than kissed,” Will hisses in my ear, and a deep growl escapes my throat. It rumbles across the skin on his neck, and I can feel hot breath hitting my shoulder as his heavy chuckles wash over me.

Will leans his head on the wall next to mine as my blood flow slowly corrects itself, and I realize he’s returning to normal at about the same pace as me. Just when I’m starting to blush all over again about it, he mumbles, “Well, that was electric,” right into my skin.