As if on cue, droplets of water snaked its way down his forehead, and he felt the wet strands of his hair stick against his skin.
A jolt ran through him as Nina thumbed a droplet of water that’d run all the way down to his cheek. The heat of her touch spread like wildfire, setting his skin ablaze. Before he’d realised what he was doing, his hands closed softly around her wrist, keeping her hand against his cheek.
A gasp escaped her lips, drawing his attention there.
“Nina,” he whispered.
His hand moved to hold the curve of her neck, and his fingers threaded through the wet strands of her hair. He pulled her closer, slowly, as if he could somehow anchor himself to her.
Every motion was slow, calculated. He gave Nina every possible chance to pull away. To close the door on this.
But she wasn’t pulling away. He was close enough now to feel the kiss of her breath against his mouth.
Then, carefully, as ifeverythingabout this was fragile, he pressed his lips against hers.
A soft touch. A gentle nudge. A question.
She stilled. Then, everything shifted.
Their mouths moved against each other, with an unspoken hunger. His lips moved over hers with a certainty that he’d never known he possessed, against all the other lips he’s touched before.
This is it. This is it for me.
The world around them slipped away, the rain dissolving into nothing. Until it was just Nina.Nina.
As the kiss ended, he lingered, his mouth resting softly against hers. Her skin was cool from the rain, but there was this warmth in the way his palms cupped her cheeks.
In the way he let his fingers trace the curve of her jaw, slowly, as if to commit her to his memory.
To memorise this feeling, this moment. She was everything that was familiar, and everything that wasn’t, all at once.
“I should’ve done that ten years ago,” he murmured, pulling away.
Her eyes - brown and luminous - were wide with shock, pupils dilated. She didn’t draw back, didn’t pull away, didn’t move.
As if suspended in the moment, in the gravity between them.
Does she feel it too?
Their breaths mingled, their shaky exhales tangling together as a dissonant quiet took hold between them. Every cell in Seth’s body yearned to kiss her again.
“Seth -”
“Don’t go out with him.”
“What are you -”
“I’m so fucking crazy for you, Nina Mendez. You’re all I think about. You’re all I’ve been able to think about since I saw you again at the train station. So give me the chance. Fall for me, again.”
He was met with nothing but the sound of the rain drumming everywhere around them, the noise heightened by his nerves. Their gazes danced, the electricity still thrumming between them.
Nina said nothing, but her eyes - they told him everything he needed to know. That she felt it too. Felt itagain.
Their lips found each other again. This time, it was a soft caress. A whisper of a kiss, with a fog of uncertainty.
And beneath it all, all thewhat ifsfading away to nothing.
29
