Free Miracle (The Pagano Family Book 6) by Susan Fanetti Page B

impatience come over the eyes of the person he was struggling to speak to—each time he faced any and all of that, he had to decide whether to fight or to give up. Usually, the chances were about even for which he’d choose.
     
    Right now, he decided to fight.
     
    “Hope so.”
     
    Her smile seemed to brighten the dark parking lot. “Me too.” She took a step so that her body nearly touched his. “Will you…can we…will you kiss me?”
     
    Stress and excitement were significant triggers for trouble. The same kinds of stimuli that would quicken the breath of a normal person stopped Joey’s right up. Though it would seem perfectly harmless to normal people—standing out here with Tina, considering a simple kiss—facing the idea of letting himself feel, putting those feelings in someone else’s hands, felt profoundly dangerous to him.
     
    Already, his chest had tightened, just at the prospect of admitting that he wanted this to have been a date. At the prospect of kissing her, an iron band clamped down, and he could feel the strain coming on.
     
    But he wanted to kiss her. Just a quick one, to give her what she wanted, what he wanted. Then he’d say goodbye and get to his Jeep, a couple cars down, where his tank was. He’d be okay.
     
    She was still standing right in front of him, looking up with expectant shyness. In her eyes, he saw the girl she’d been when he’d been a different man. He hoped she wasn’t waiting for that guy to show up—he was long dead.
     
    Circling her upper arms in his hands, he bent and pressed his lips to hers.
     
    A tiny grunt escaped her as she opened her mouth, and her tongue brushed over his bottom lip. He’d meant the kiss to be quick and light; he was in the danger zone and couldn’t afford for it to be anything more—and here was the problem with going this way at all. He didn’t have the physical capacity to follow through. As soon as he got excited, he fell the fuck apart.
     
    He needed to stop and get to his Jeep. But he didn’t want to stop. She’d gathered handfuls of his coat in her hands and was pulling, keeping their bodies together, and his own hands drew her close as well. He opened his mouth and found her tongue with his own.
     
    Then they were kissing wildly. Fuck, it had been so long. So very long since something like this had happened, and even longer since it had been good. Tina felt like, tasted like, hope, and he couldn’t get enough.
     
    With one step backward, she drew him forward, so that she was leaning on her car again and he was leaning on her. He knew she could feel his erection. She rocked her hips, pressing her body tightly to that ridge in his jeans…
     
    …and he fell apart. Suddenly—no, not suddenly, it had been coming on for a while and he’d damn well known it—he could barely breathe at all. He tore his mouth from hers and turned, dropping his hands to his knees. He had to calm down. Fumbling in his coat pocket, he snagged his inhaler and sucked on it as much as his rigid lungs would allow. Nothing happened. He was pretty sure the damn inhaler had been prescribed like a security blanket and actually had no medicinal purpose.
     
    “Do you have your tank?” Tina asked, her hand on his back. Her voice was calm.
     
    “My…car,” he gasped, nodding.
     
    She held out her hand. “Keys.”
     
    He wanted to tell her no, tell her to go away, but this was a bad one, and he didn’t have the air for even one more syllable. He pawed at his pocket, and then she took over and dug into his jeans for his keys. As she turned toward his Jeep, Joey stumbled the few steps to the low brick wall around the parking lot and sat down.
     
    She was gone and back in seconds that felt like hours, and she held out the mask to him—she’d known to switch out the cannula for the mask. He shoved it over his mouth and nose and gasped until he could take real breaths. Panic subsided as air began to circulate through his body again.
     
    Tina sat