I turned this way and that, frantically trying to put my eyes on James. Victor and Anamae tried to make their way around the crowd instead of charging through it. I could see Knox’s tall frame as he attempted to free himself from two girls who were pulling him toward the dance floor. Moments later, I lost sight of them when I was carried backward by the throng of kids.

Warm hands were at my hips, and then arms closed around my waist like coiled snakes. I breathed in deeply, raising my arms to pull him closer, happiness flooding through me with such force I actually thought I’d faint.

“James,” I said over and over. I stretched up on my toes, desperate to feel his lips on mine.

His movement was so swift that at first, I couldn’t understand what was happening. James grabbed both of my wrists, snapping them down by my side. He pulled me roughly in the same direction I’d been going with Knox and Ever.

“He’s got her,” Ever yelled.

I could tell by the sound of her voice that she was close, but I couldn’t see her. It was all I could do to keep up with James. My heels felt like stilts as I slipped across the dance floor, but it only became more difficult to run when we hit the soft grass. I twisted out of James’s grip once we were beyond the twinkling lights of the prom.

“Leath, we have to go,” James said, a sense of urgency coloring his voice.

“Give me a second,” I said, bending to undo the straps of my heels.

James steadied me when I lost my balance, and I was lost in his eyes. For a moment, we were the only people on the planet. Briefly hesitating before pulling me into his arms, he gently turned my face up toward his, then leaned down to kiss me. My entire being became focused on satisfying one desperate need. The need to be closer to him.

I parted my lips and pressed myself against him, enticing him to kiss me again and again until we were breathless. Whenever his lips left mine, I knotted my fingers in his hair and gently urged him back to me. I sensed an equal desperation in the way he held me; in the way he kissed me as if his life depended on it. I wished we were anywhere else but standing on the edge of the prom crowd where our privacy could be so easily interrupted.

“Let her go, old man,” Knox said. Although he’d used his nickname for James, there was no playfulness in his tone. “It’s over.”

In an almost-robotic manner, James lifted his face away from mine. Keeping his eyes trained on Knox, he stepped away from me, but not before he grabbed one of my wrists.

“Stay out of my way, Knox,” James said.