(Slade’s POV)
I shouldn’t have kissed her.
That was the first thought that hit me the moment I woke up the next morning. I lay there staring at the ceiling, replaying the memory whether I wanted to or not. Aspen’s breath against mine. The way she froze for half a second before kissing me back. The way her fingers curled into my shirt like she was afraid I might disappear.
Weak.
That was what it was.
I’d let myself confuse care with something else, something deeper, something dangerous. Aspen was young. She was still figuring out who she was and how to survive in a world that had already taken too much from her. I had no right to be another complication in her life. No right to blur lines that were there for a reason.
I rolled out of bed and paced the room, jaw tight.
I wasn’t some l
