My hands had grabbed the sides of his leather jacket when I’d landed on him, and the warmth of him chased the chill out of my bones.
I was suddenly hyper-aware of Venezio’s arms wrapped tightly around me, holding me firmly against his chest. And, God, it felt even better than it had in my fantasies.
For a guy with a swimmer’s type build, he was surprisingly strong.
“You okay?”
His voice was a caress over my skin, melting in, making a shiver course through me.
My gaze lifted, our eyes locking.
One beat.
Two.
His eyes dipped to my lips, and when they returned to mine, they were heavy-lidded.
My heart stammered.
Warmth flooded my chest.
Interest pooled in my core.
My lips parted, a silent invitation.
Venezio’s head dipped slightly.
Then a cop car blazed past, sirens screaming, blue and red lights flashing.
We broke apart.
“Uh, well, thanks for saving me,” I said, waving back toward the subway steps, “and for walking me.”
“I’m walking you down.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“It is,” he said, tucking his hands in his pockets. I wanted so badly to think he did so to keep from reaching out for me, and not just because it was freezing out.
Either way, though, he stayed one step behind me as we made it down to the subway platform where a busker’s voice bled through the tunnel—the saddest version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”I’d ever heard, each note echoing like regret in an empty home.
I was thankful when the train screamed into the station with a frigid gust of air because I was pretty sure if I had to stand and listen to the singer for another moment, I would start crying.
“Thanks again,” I said to Venezio before rushing into the train and sitting down.
My gaze couldn’t help but track Venezio, though, as he moved closer to the busker, casually dropping cash into the open guitar case as he passed.
He was gone before the train shot away from the platform.
But he was still with me.
In the flickering pulse in my chest and throat.
In the deep ache in my core.
Maybe asking him to be my date hadn’t been such a good idea after all.
Oh well.
