She’d been robbed of it, too. Now it was hers. Her kiss once more.

Fiery. Passionate. A kiss after days and days of wanting, days of covert glances, of brushing shoulders as they passed the halls, of catching each other watching.

She’d been on a hall pass and the corridor had been empty when he appeared, coming the opposite way. They stared. Their paces slowed. They halted. Then he grabbed her wrists, pinned her against Penny Morgan’s locker, and kissed her heart out.

Her eyes stung at the memory. Her throat worked to dislodge the clog of emotion in her trachea, because God, yes, she remembered it all. She remembered love. Being loved by him. Loving him innocently. Completely.

“Tell us where you are, Paige. Tell us …”

Paige scarcely heard, because it had been years since her memories talked to her, and the sound of them was the sweetest thing she’d ever heard.

This was not the reason she was here. She knew they wanted something else from her, and yet she was drowning in her own memories, thoughts and thoughts swirling in places that had been empty before.

“Zachary Rivers is staring at you, Paige.”

“Well, well, look at that blush when you tell her!”

“What are you guys talking about? Paige can’t even talk to Zach Rivers, Francine.”

“Trista, seriously. Get real. And Paige, swear to God, if Zach bumps your shoulder one more time as some lame excuse to touch you and straighten you up and you go all blushy like you do I’m going to slap the both of you!”

Her friends, Paige thought tenderly. What were they doing now? She hadn’t told them then that every day, she and Zach kissed their mouths red. She couldn’t tell them that Zach was everything—everything—to her.

And she’d just about had it with hiding.

The halls were bustling with students, but suddenly determined, Paige squared her shoulders and walked up to Zach as he shut his locker. To his broad back, she whispered, “I love you.”

He stiffened. It took him forever to turn around, and then he stared at her as though she were a bizarre creature from another planet. It seemed that everyone else stared, too.

“What are you doing?” he asked. Just a whisper. In his eyes, she could see storms, she could see he wanted to grab her and say the words back to her. But he was far more careful lately than she.

The bell rang.

As soon as the halls were clearing, he dragged her down the hall and into the tiny, shaded interior of the janitor’s closet, and shut the door. “That was reckless, baby, reckless.” But he grabbed her ass, boosted her up and against him, and pushed her lips open with his, plowing greedily into her mouth. “Christ, what am I going to do with you?”

She cupped his strong cheek. “Love me.” Her smile faltered on her face. “I’ve been waiting and hoping and praying for you to say it, so then I thought—”