Laurent sighed. “I asked her questions about the proposal. What you were wearing. What she was wearing. The venue. What your parents said about it. Where you got the ring from. I let her tie herself up in knots. And then once she had and even she couldn’t keep up the facade of it ever happening, I pointed out all your flaws.”
I rounded on him, my frown genuine. “Such as what?”
Laurent’s lips twitched. “Your stubbornness. Your wild streak. How impulsive you are. How annoyingly chirpy you are first thing in the morning. How somebody else being grumpy just makes you chirpier, and how you delight in that. Nothing we haven’t discussed before. I just… exaggerated them a bit... Made out they were worse than they are. She got so into the list, she added a few of her own.”
“Right.”
Laurent smiled. “And then she pointed out with no prompting from me whatsoever that she could do better, that you weren’t the perfect shining example of manhood she’d been trying to convince herself you were. So I think we can safely say the engagement is off. Happy now?”
“Ecstatic.”
Laurent laughed. “You did ask.”
I had a feeling as I turned my attention back to the wind tunnel that he was downplaying things, that it hadn’t been quite that straightforward. I supposed I couldn’t blame him if there were parts of that conversation that he intended to keep private. The important thing was that it seemed to have worked.
The wind tunnel was blissfully squeal-free, even though its current occupant was struggling to get the hang of the balance required, the instructor constantly having to push him back into the center.
Laurent came up behind me, close enough that he could rest his chin on my shoulder. “I did what was required to get rid of her. I have just as many faults as you do. In fact, we share some of the same ones. I do not, however, have any exes weaving fantasy stories about me.”
“Do you think she was genuinely nuts?”
Laurent rocked his chin on my shoulder while he considered the question. “I think she became hung up on what she’d convinced herself was the ultimate prize, and it turned intoa tunnel vision she couldn’t see her way past. We’ve all had periods of our life when we go a little crazy. Hers was just a little crazier than most.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. When Laurent turned his head to kiss me on the cheek, heat rushed through me, and I found myself smiling.
“Is this okay?” he whispered.
“It’s more than okay,” I said honestly. “Just… don’t make me hard before I go in the wind tunnel. I want people staring at me for my superior flight skills. Not because they think wind tunnels really do it for me.”
Chapter Twenty-six
When we were finally back in our own clothes and ready to leave the iFly building—both Laurent and I having enjoyed our flights and been damn good at it—it was to find the heavens had opened in our absence.
“Shit!” I said as we stood and looked out over the rain-soaked car park, the downpour not showing any signs of stopping. “I never checked the forecast. Did you?” Laurent shook his head, something about the rain seeming to have him transfixed. Was he rain phobic? Was there such a thing? “I guess we wait until it’s stopped.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket, intent on pulling up the weather app and seeing how long that might be.
“Or,” Laurent said, “we don’t.” There was a glint in his eye that said he was up to something. “What was it you said on the night we first met? Something about happiness being running through the rain hand in hand with someone, and not giving a damn that you’re getting wet because they’re there with you.”
I was taken aback for a moment. “You remember that?”
“I remember it,” Laurent said with a smile. “Because at the time, I thought it was one of the stupidest things I’d ever heard. That wet was wet, and the company didn’t make the slightest bit of difference to that. But you’re not the only one who can change.” He held his hand out and waggled his eyebrows. “What do you say? Do you want to run through the rain with me?”
As romantic gestures went, it was enough to render me speechless. Luckily, talking wasn’t required. I just needed to reach out and take Laurent’s hand. And that’s exactly what I did, his fingers closing around mine.
The staff looked on in utter bemusement as we ran past reception and burst through the doors and out onto the street. We ran with no destination in mind, just for the sheer joy of running. And it was joyous, both of us laughing before we’d even reached the end of the street. We plowed through the puddles; there was little point in avoiding them when we were already soaked to the skin. A car splashed us and we didn’t care. It just made us laugh all the harder.
We ran for what felt like hours, but was really only minutes, until, out of breath, we slowed before coming to a stop. Pure elation had me cupping Laurent’s cheeks and backing him against a wall. His lips were cold when I fitted my mouth to his, but it didn’t take us long to generate enough heat to warm us both. Laurent’s questing hands sent rivulets of rain into places I couldn’t honestly say I’d ever experienced it before, but I wasn’t about to complain.
“I could fuck you right here,” I panted against his neck when our lips finally broke apart. “Up against the wall. In the rain.”
Laurent laughed, and it was a laugh completely without artifice. One hundred percent him. No barriers up. No pretending to be anything he wasn’t. “Rain as lube,” he said. “And I thought you were vanilla.”
I kissed him again, unable to get enough of him, our cocks pressed together through the wet fabric. The next time we broke apart, a certainty filled me. Something I had to get out for fear I might burst. “I think I love you.”
Laurent blinked up at me, water droplets on his eyelashes sparkling like diamonds. “You think?”
“I do. I love you!”
“Just because I ran through the rain with you,” he teased.
