Her tongue darts over her lower lip. I reach my hand through the bars and cup her cheek. I realize my mistake when she gasps. I shouldn’t be touching her. But I can’t pull away either.
Chloe doesn’t step back.
We are both frozen, unable to move. Whatever happens next, something will change between us, and we won't be unable to go back.
If she steps back or calls the guards, any indication of trust and friendship was all in my head.
If she moves closer…I'm not sure what it will mean, but it will mean something.
Chloe will become the first woman I kiss, if she takes that half-step closer.
She looks up at me with wide eyes. I want to say she started it by touching me, but that would be a lie. I feel the shift in her weight and then she’s moving closer.
13
CHLOE
His touch is warm against my cheek, and I can’t help but lean into his touch. He’s watching me as though I am the only person in existence. To him, I am. I’m the only person he talks to.
What am I doing?
Yet, even as I rock onto my toes, I can’t pull back. I want to know what his lips feel like on mine.
I suck in a breath and hesitate. “You said your kind mates for life. That it hurts to be apart from your mate. I don’t want?—"
His claws press into my scalp as he pulls me close. My cheek presses against the bar and his lips brush over mine. “It takes more than a kiss to create the bond between mates."
His breath is on my lips, as if he’s waiting for me to take the next step. To kiss him back…if what he did can be called a kiss.
My heart is beating too fast. Is his?
Is he worried that I’ll call the guards?
He hasn’t released me, and his cheek is also pressed against the cool metal bars of the cell.
I feel as though I’m going to fall over, and if I lean any further forward, I won’t be able to rock back and step away. Instead, I’lltumble over the edge I can't even see. If I turn my head away and glance down, it will be enough for the safe ground to reform.
Safe is the reason that most follow the colony leaders without question. They are all waiting for someone to save them. To make things right, and to tell them how to live.
I don’t want safe.
I don’t know what I want.
Do I want him?
Or do I want something to write in my secret notes?
The moment stretches on, neither of us moving. If he didn’t want it, he would’ve released me. I like the pressure of his claws a little too much. The way he is holding me firmly, but not so hard that I can’t pull away.
I swallow and inch my foot forward. My fingers wrap around the bar because I need something to hold on to in case I fall. It’s an illusion of safety. I am one hundred percent sure that if a guard walked in and saw us now…
I'm not sure what will happen, but it will be nothing good.
Will I be disappeared like some others?
Will they kill Tiril?
“I can sense when people are approaching,” he murmurs.
