Free Find Me by Cait Jarrod

feeling when a woman loves a man for who he is.” His breath passed over her face as he spoke. The scent so uniquely Coop urged her to want more, but he jumped to conclusions. “I haven’t said I love you,” she whispered, lying, because oh boy she did. She loved him when he wore his glasses, and she couldn’t see his eyes. When he wore high water jeans and looked like a goof. Now, his eyes boring into hers and him wearing a suit, looking like the best thing she’d ever seen, she was a goner. Completely and utterly gone.
    He moved, and she almost fell. His arm tightened around her. Oh jeez. She’s on a dance floor, supposedly dancing, and her mind had left the stratosphere, much like her father did when he looked at her mother’s picture.
    “You don’t have to,” he said. “I see it in your eyes when you look at me. I see it in your face when you understand my intentions. I see it when you’re pissed. I reached for the stars to get my family out of debt, to get them on their own feet, but in here,” he pointed at his chest, “I always had the moon. The light behind everything I’ve done. You. You’re the moon who has always shown me the way. You made me the man I am today.”
    Tears spilled onto her cheeks.
    An irritating-screech came from the intercom, and the band stopped playing.
    “Since the previous batch of candy was tainted,” someone, dressed like a teacher with a collar buttoned up to her neck, said from the stage where the band played. “Each single guest has received a new box. It’s time to open them.”
    She glanced at the box in her hand, vaguely remembering someone putting it there.
    “Don’t think,” Coop said. “Act. Do what your heart wants. If you believe your box holds the answer to your soul mate then by all means open it. But if you think you found your soul mate as a child, as I know I did, then…”
    “Are you opening your boxes?” Felicia interrupted as she joined them.
    In her soul, part of her always had known she’d found that someone special. Maybe that’s why whenever she thought of Coop her chest ached. It missed her other half. “I don’t need to see FIND ME on the candy to know who is meant for me.” She handed Felicia her box.
    “No. We don’t.” He handed his box to his sister, too. Wrapping his arms around Lyse, he drew her closer until no space existed between them. “The candy is alive and well. Because of it, we’re together.” He spoke against her mouth and kissed her. Urgent, yet gentle his lips rubbed hers, his tongue slipping in and out of her mouth. He mimicked the act she couldn’t wait for them to do with other parts of their bodies. She moaned. The kiss picked up momentum. He deepened it by kissing her hard and long, until the got-to-have-it-now sensation tossed heat, lust, and desire over her body demanding she act or embarrass herself by humping his leg on the dance floor.
    “I want you so badly,” she whispered against his mouth.
    His groan vibrated her chest, pebbling her nipples. “Come on.” Hands intertwined, he led her into the low-lit hallway at the rear of the gymnasium and crowded her against the hall wall to kiss some more.
    “Where to?” she managed to ask when he sucked in air to gain control. “Seriously, I’ll bust.” The ache low in her belly grew tighter. If he touched her, she’d explode. She’d rather them be alone and in a compromising position when she did.
    “I have an idea,” he said. “Remove your shoes.”
    “What? Why?”
    “You can’t run in them.”
    True. She did as he asked and picked up her heels by their straps. Again, he grabbed her hand and ran through the halls they’d walked in as teens doing the unthinkable, running, and heading for a make out spot. She giggled. Who cared, but it was fun. Sweet, actually. She’d done everything expected of her, earned good grades, helped her dad out at the travel agency. And now, she ran, planned to make out in school, and talk to Coop about