There was a serious look in his eyes that was hard to pull away from. ‘I wanted to help you.’
‘You did.’
I hated how everything we were saying was now slipping into the past tense. This really was all coming to an end, and I wasn’t ready. Not even close.
‘I guess you’ll be pretty occupied over the next few weeks, taking care of Amelia?’ Nick’s eyes had annoyingly dropped to his coffee, making it impossible to read them. But from the way he was rotating the mug within the circle of his palms, it almost looked as though he was nervous.
‘Fairly busy, I imagine.’ Was he asking if I’d have time to see him again? Surely if that was what he wanted, he’d have come straight out and said it?
‘And then you’ll be going back to the States.’
There was definitely no question mark at the end of that sentence. It felt like a thick black line was being drawn beneath the story of us.
‘That’s the plan.’ Three words, and yet I could hear the reverberation of a thousand doors closing as I uttered them.
It felt like my cue to leave, and I took it, springing to my feet as though a starting pistol had been fired. ‘Well, it’s getting late, and I have to be at the hospital early in the morning.’ My words came out in a rush, as though they were planning on racing me out of the building to my car. ‘I should probably go.’
Stop me. Say you don’t want me to leave just yet.
My telepathy was clearly faulty because he didn’t pick up on any of the signals I was silently screaming across the room at him.
‘I’ll walk you to your car,’ Nick said, getting to his feet.
‘No, that’s fine. I can see myself out.’ I was hoping for a quick, clean exit before I did or said anything to embarrass myself, but he was having none of it.
‘I’ll walk you,’ he said in a voice that brooked no argument.
The reception was in darkness now, and he didn’t turn on the lights as we passed through it. By the glow of two flickering computer screens, we made our way to the door. Tension thrummed between us. It hummed like a generator whose gauge was tipping slowly towards the red side of the dial. Did Nick feel it too? Perhaps he did, because just before unlocking the door he cast a quizzical look around, as though sensing something in the air had altered. The ions between us felt like they were fizzing in freefall as we stepped out into the cool night air.
I wasn’t wearing a jacket, so was immediately aware that the temperature had dropped in the last thirty minutes and that a strong wind had whipped up. Those conditions were a precursor to something that definitely wasn’t supposed to happen tonight. Perhaps in more ways than one.
I felt the first drop of rain on my face. It landed on my cheek like a tear. It was followed quickly by another. And then another. We’d almost reached my car, and Nick was walking so fast I was practically trotting to keep up with him. He got to the vehicle and turned to face me. Raindrops were falling, faster and faster. His dark hair glistened with them. They spiked his lashes, glittering there like diamond fragments.
‘It’s raining,’ I said, stating the glaringly obvious.
Nick glanced up as though seeking confirmation and a few more raindrops found their way on to his lashes. The urge to rub them away was almost irresistible.
‘It is,’ he declared solemnly.
Say it, a voice in my head screamed at me.Say it now, or you’re always going to regret letting this moment slip away.
I dug in my bag for my phone and pulled it out. ‘Maybe we could take one last photo?The Notebookone,’ I suggested in an unsteady voice that didn’t sound like mine at all.
I counted my heartbeats as I waited for him to reply, until they grew too fast to record. The rain had intensified, and I was halfway towards the drowned-rat look, which average mortals couldn’t pull off as effectively as Hollywood actors. And yet still Nick said nothing. When I was just about as embarrassed as it’s possible to get without imploding, he held out his hand for my phone. He held it aloft in a classic selfie pose and waited for me to close the distance between us.
I’m not sure how many people I’d kissed before him, but I do know that I’d never been this nervous, nor wanted someone’s mouth on mine as much as I did his in that moment. It might not be real; it might just be for the camera, but I didn’t care. All I knew was that I wanted this.
Nick was so close I could feel the heat of his body, despite the rain. I’m glad I hadn’t already closed my eyes, for I’d have hated to have missed the look on his face or the expression in his eyes as he deliberately set my mobile down on the roof of my car.
My eyes flew to the abandoned phone and then back to him.
‘This isn’t Amelia’s first kiss,’ he said, his voice low and throaty. ‘It’s ours. Yours and mine. And we don’t need a photograph to mark this moment, because I don’t think either of us will ever forget this.’
And then his hands were on my shoulders, drawing me closer. They slid upwards with slow deliberation, as though he was giving me time to stop this if I wanted to. He got his answer as my arms went around his body.
Nick’s hands cradled my face and then his fingers were sliding through my hair, as he lowered his mouth to mine. There was nothing tentative or hesitant in his kiss. It was everything it should be… and so much more. His lips moved with just the right amount of confidence and skill, teasing out my response. When his tongue began its exploration of my mouth, I met it with an eagerness that was frankly embarrassing.
I could no longer feel the rain. However hard it fell, it wouldn’t extinguish this fire, not with our bodies welded together as though we’d been through an inferno. One of Nick’s hands had dropped to the small of my back, supporting me. The other had slid lower and was cupping the curve of my bottom. It held me against him in a way that left no doubt that he was as turned on by our kiss as I was.
