“Do you have any idea how much I like you?” It was his turn to shake his head, eyes still wide. She patted his chest knowingly and nodded again. He was still so incapable of seeing himself the way she saw him. “It’s…it’s a lot, Theo. Far more than I’ve ever liked anyone before. I like you so much, it aches.”
Theo screwed his eyes shut and surged forward to take her lips in his, lifting a hand and cradling her neck while he kissed her well and thoroughly in the dark corner of the ballroom. The music from the party thudded in the background, drowning out every sound save for their beating hearts. Theo’s thundered in his chest beneath her palms, as frantic and needful as her own pulse throbbing beneath his thumb caressing her skin. The deeper he kissed her, the more she burned, the more sheneeded.
She’d never known anyone like him before.
She never wanted to know anyone else.
He pulled away, gasping quietly as he looked at her before burying his face in her shoulder. He smiled against her neck.
“Okay,” he finally whispered. He slid his fingers up and buried them in her hair. “No more doubts. I promise.”
“Good.” Audrey wished she could do the same, but he was still covered in that goddamn gauze.
She was thoroughly tired of the costumes now.
It was time to take off their masks.
After the party,they left campus and headed back toward Brooklyn, stopping for pizza on the way and eating it while they walked, dripping grease onto the sidewalks and gleefully licking sauce from their fingertips. They hadn’t really gotten to eat any of the food they’d been in charge of setting up, and Audrey was starving. The clouds overhead continued to roll and thicken, and gusts of wind picked up tendrils of her hair and plucked at them wildly. But all it did was add to her exhilaration.
Something about being out with Theo now made her feel so terribly, vibrantlyalive. The way he looked at her—stealing glances here and there when he thought she wasn’t paying attention, the light of the street lamps and signs and millions of cascading windowsacross the buildings of the sweeping cityscape glinting in his eyes—sent shivers down her spine, and she never wanted to look away. The idea of drowning herself in his amber gaze was intoxicating, and every time his fingers sought out hers, sparks skipped across her skin, searing gooseflesh in their wake.
By the time they caught the train and mounted the stairs back up to their neighborhood, the weather had shifted. The clouds were thicker and darker, and thunder rumbled. Theo paused at the top of the stairs and looked up at the sky.
It smelled like rain in the air.
“There weren’t any storms in the forecast,” he muttered. But as soon as the words left his mouth, he blinked and startled, reaching up slowly to wipe at his eyes. Audrey felt it next: a big, fat raindrop landed on her forehead, icy and bracing. Another came on its heels, and another, and another, until the skies opened up above them.
And poured.
The other people on the sidewalks all scattered and ran, holding up umbrellas or bags or jackets to shelter them from the downpour. Before Audrey could even blink, something dropped firmly onto her head. It was Theo’s hat, the brim of it keeping some of the rain out of her face.
She glanced up at him. The gauze he wore was already sopping wet, stuck to and around his features like papier-mâché. Drops of water fell from his long lashes and disappeared into the sodden cotton.
“Come on!” he cried. “My place is closer!”
He grabbed her hand.
And they ran.
Nine
They tore throughthe streets, picking up speed while the rain thundered down on them even harder than before.
Despite Theo’s best efforts—he’d also thrown his jacket around her shoulders—Audrey was soaked to the bone and shivering, the strips of paint chips wet and curling, hanging limp from their safety pins and weighing her dress down considerably. The cold air burned her lungs as she panted and tried her best to keep up with Theo’s long legs while he led them to shelter. But when they turned a corner, his foot caught in an uneven piece of sidewalk, and his fingers ripped away from her grasp as he fell heavily to the ground with a cry.
“Theo!” she shouted. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled right after it, drowning out her voice. She bent down and helped him stumble to his feet. “Are you okay?”
His face was twisted in pain, but he nodded through a grimace. “I’m fine.” He took her hand in his again. “We’re almost there.”
They kept going at a trot, Theo’s limp far more pronounced than it was earlier, until they nearly reached the end of the block. He carefully mounted the stairs of the second to last brownstone at the top of a hill, gripping the iron handrail tightly while pulling a set of keys from his pocket. There was a safety door, and he punched a code into a keypad to unlock it before twisting a fancy key in thefront door lock. When it swung open, lights automatically turned on in the entryway and he pulled Audrey inside.
As soon as the doors shut after her, electronic locks clicked into place with a beep. The sounds of the raging storm outside were immediately muffled, and Audrey’s teeth chattered while she looked around.
She’d been expecting an apartment building with a foyer and multiple levels, much like where she lived. Much like how most New Yorkers she knew lived.
But this wasn’t an apartment building.
This was a house.
