Free In a Heartbeat (Heartbeat #1) by Teodora Kostova

as if she was about to faint and excusing herself, left Rico alone on the dance floor and headed back to their table. She needed to get out of here. Now.

    *

    When Max saw Rico kiss Stella on the back of her neck, rage boiled his blood and his fists ached to hit something, preferably Rico’s face. He wanted to rip out the bastard’s tongue and feed it back to him. Anger he hadn’t felt for a long time overtook him, and he felt his muscles tense and get ready for a fight.
    He was taken completely by surprise when Antonia kissed him. The touch of her lips brought him back to reality. Slowly, his body eased and he was able to form some reasonable thoughts. Stella wasn’t his. She could kiss whoever she liked. He shouldn’t be jealous and he most definitely shouldn’t pounce on anyone who got close to her.
    Max let himself go and got lost in Antonia’s kiss. He went along with it for a while, because what he really needed right now was to like it. He wanted to feel something for Antonia, even if it was even a fraction of the lust he felt for Stella. He needed to get her out of his head and Antonia seemed like the perfect person to do it.
    However, it didn’t work out. The girl was smart; she pulled away as soon as she felt nothing from him but mechanical moving of his lips and tongue. Smiling at him with a mixture of realisation and regret, she turned on her heel and left him alone on the dance floor.
    He looked around, but Stella was gone.

Chapter Six

    Stella didn’t sleep well that night. Her emotions were all over the place and every time she closed her eyes, she saw Max kissing that girl.
    At 6 a.m. she couldn’t take it anymore and got up. She did the only thing that would help clear her mind – she put on her running clothes and shoes and headed for the beach. It was still chilly outside and Stella enjoyed the cool, refreshing air and the quiet of the streets. The whole city was still sleeping. When she got to the beach, the sun was just above the horizon and the water was peacefully moving and creating little waves, as if it too was still sleepy.
    Stella stretched for a few minutes before starting a slow jog. A flashback of the last time she had run made its way to her frontal lobe. There was no way she would ever run again without thinking about Max. However, she couldn’t afford to not run, so effectively her work-out was ruined, because even if she didn’t want to think about him, she would.
    Last night had been a revelation. Max was attracted to her, true. But he was also a guy who wouldn’t intentionally do anything to let his friends down. So, he was moving on.
    Stella was glad. Kind of. Well, she wasn’t glad at all and was jealous out of her mind, but she also realised that was how it should be. That was for the best. Now they could look beyond their attraction to each other and hang out. Be friends.
    How many times had she used that word in the past couple of days? And to what effect? She had never done anything to try and get to know Max better, had she? All she had done was crave his touch like air, think about what his lips would taste like and relish the way he drank her in with those mesmerising eyes. Not very friendly. Had she ever asked him anything? Made an effort to find out more about him ? No. Well, it was time to correct that mistake. Now that he had moved on and started kissing girls in clubs right in front of her, there was no danger of them stepping over the friend line. She was going to ask him out to dinner tonight and actually have a conversation.
    Stella was so deep in thought that she didn’t notice how far she had run. Her lungs were burning, her legs felt like jelly and she could feel pain beginning to form in her injured foot. It had been OK yesterday, even after spending the evening in heels, but now the wound was starting to throb with pain. She eased her pace and in a few minutes slowed down to a walk. Taking her bottle of water out of her bumbag, she drank half of it