I’m too disoriented to finish the simile.
“Sweet as sunshine?”
“Sunshine doesn’t have a taste.”
“But you’re sunshine, and I’m sure you’d taste nice.”
My breath catches. Noah coughs lightly, dropping us a little further.
“Sorry,” he quickly adds. “I didn’t really mean it like that.”
I press my face into his chest to muffle a burst of laughter. “Yes, you did.”
“Okay, fine.” There’s an obvious smile in his voice, even though I can’t see it. “I meant that.”
“Noah—”
“Yeah, yeah,” he interrupts. “I know flirting is punishable by death by the Hawk or whatever. But you can’t really think that I could spend all this time with you and not want you, Lila.”
I shiver again, but this time it’s not from the cold. Just yesterday, I admitted to Hale that it’s not only him and Evan that have my head spinning, but also Noah. Of the three of them, I assumed that my undeniable attraction to Noah was the most harmless.
But it might be a little more complex than that.
“I think I don’t know what to say,” I admit.
“That’s okay.” He sounds like he means it. “By the way, we made it.”
Sure enough, Noah’s feet land on solid pavement. He straightens up, loosening the belay rope, and then I’m extricating myself from the human knot I’d tied myself into around his torso. When my toes touch the ground, my first thought is to step away from him.
But the tether hooked between us means I can’t go much farther than six inches or so.
Noah chuckles when my motion tugs him toward me. My eyes aren’t adjusting fast enough to the thick darkness down here, and he’s the only thing I dare to reach for.
He catches me by the waist before I can make us both stumble again.
“All clear,” he whispers in my ear, sending goosebumps skittering down my spine. “That’s the command I’d give if this was a real drill. And then I’d hand you off to Reyes.”
“What?”
“Or whatever EMT is responding,” he clarifies.
“Totally.”
I think I catch a glint of humor in his eyes, but it might be the dark playing tricks on me.
“Lila?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s just—I can’t help feeling like a few stolen minutes in the dark with you is a sign that I should do this…”
I don’t need to ask what he means. “Do it, then.”
Noah moves me carefully, backing me up against the alley wall that I hadn’t noticed was so close behind me. I’m caged in by the warmth of his strong arms, and his face hovers so close that the tip of my nose brushes against his. That single, fleeting touch sends a spark of electricity down my spine. I wonder in the back of my mind if the wild chemistry between us is what cut the power.
“I know I shouldn’t,” he whispers.
Probably not,is what I’m supposed to say.
