Her Collateral Bride: A Lesbian Age Gap Romance

them, distance that couldn’t be surmounted. Just as quickly as

she’d let her guard down, the walls went up, her face an

inscrutable mask again.

“Claire?” Haley was so frustrated. In every way. Physically.

Mentally. She was going out of her mind. She sat and Claire

stood, neither of them making a move. Haley missed the

connection they’d just shared. The intimacy that Claire

couldn’t stop herself from wanting.

It felt real. God, she wanted it to be real.

Their gazes locked, and it was perhaps the most intimate

thing they’d ever done. Haley knew she was falling. So hard

and irrevocably fast.

“Haley.” The word was a torment. She ached so badly.

Claire blinked and the moment was shattered. Whatever they’d

just shared, whatever intimate current that had passed between

them with no need for words, was gone. “I’m going to go back

to my office. You need to practice.”

“I don’t.”

“Then you have something else you should be doing.”

“No.”

“A paper to write, school to work on, young person things

to be doing?”

“Young person things?” Haley laughed. “What’s that

supposed to mean?” She knew what it meant. She knew the

distance Claire was trying to put

between them. Reminding

her of who they each were and the lines that divided them.

Haley wanted to stand up and grip Claire by the shoulders.

She wanted to force her to look at her. She wanted to kiss her

senseless, to demand her secrets, to demand to be let inside the