While I was breaking apart. I shoved out of the protective circle of River’s arms and fell back against a bank of storage lockers with a hollow clang. My pulse pounded. I could feel him all over me—in my mouth and lungs and heart—his kiss a resuscitation. He pulled me out of the lake and breathed life into me… Uncertainty flashed over his eyes. “Did I…do something wrong?” I shook my head mutely, the warmth—his warmth—still flowing through my veins. How could I explain it had never been like that? That it wasn’t supposed to be like that? No one had ever kissed me like it meant something.
