He caught my hand as it descended, squeezing it lightly. “You terrify me.”
Something about the hoarseness of his voice had me stopping, grabbing his collar, and hauling him forwards until his lips met mine.
I didn’t know how long we kissed for, just that I was struggling to catch my breath when we finally broke apart. “Fuck, you do something to me, Dominic Walker.”
“Same goes, Shadow.”
He chucked his knuckles against my chin before taking my hand in his. “Come on. Best get there before Max starts to worry.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I didn’t give a shit if Max worried or not. But Dominic did.
If it made Dominic happy, I’d go along with whatever he liked.
“I’m surprised you didn’t head there with Max,” I said lightly. They’d been planning this piss-up since the first day of sixth form.
“I’d rather go with you.” Dominic squeezed my hand. “Plus, I wouldn’t be able to walk with you like this if Max were here.”
The joy of him choosing me was tainted by the knowledge that this was hidden. Dominic could only hold my hand because no one was around. In a few minutes, we’d have to let go. There’d be no more kisses. No more touching. Not so much as a lingering glance until we were back behind my firmly closed bedroom door.
Which was what I wanted.
Right?
No. Not really. I didn’t want Max to know, but I was starting to resent hiding.
“It’ll be easier come October,” I said. “We won’t have to hide when I’m at uni.”
Dom hummed.
“I’m so excited,” I confessed. “I know you’ll be working or whatever, but in your time off, you can come and visit me. We won’t have to worry about being quiet at night.”
“Which is good, because you’re terrible at it now.”
I scowled at him, but it just took a raise of his brow to have me shrugging. “Yeah, can’t really deny that. Sorry.”
He nudged me with his shoulder. “Don’t be sorry, Shadow. You not being able to control yourself when we’re in bed together is hot as fuck.”
I groaned, reaching down with my spare hand to rearrange myself. “Don’t say shit like that, Dom. I can’t walk into this thing with a boner.”
He pressed a laughing kiss to my temple. “My bad.”
As we walked a little further, I continued to prattle on about uni. The dates we could go on. What universities might have spots open for art during Clearing.
“There’s just so much to look forward to.” I sighed, swinging our clasped hands between us. “Imagine it, Dom. A few months from now, everything will be different.”
“Yeah, Shadow. It will be.”
I glanced over to see him staring at me wistfully. “Why are you looking at me like that? Aren’t you excited?”
Before he could respond, a loud catcall echoed through the trees. Dominic snatched his hand out of mine, shoving it into his pocket as he turned a grin in Max’s direction. “Max! We did it, man!”
I stepped back as my twin embraced Dominic in a massive bear hug. From how he was gently swaying, I had to imagine he was several drinks deep already. “We’re so fucking close, I can almost taste it.”
He must have been drunk. We weren’t close to finishing, we were finished. It was literally the reason we were doing this tonight.
Dominic cleared his throat, pulling out of Max’s embrace and smiling indulgently. “Time to celebrate. Let’s go find me and Ryan some drinks.”
Max’s eyes flicked over to me like he hadn’t realised I was there. Maybe he hadn’t. Wouldn’t be the first time he’d ignored me just because he was in Dominic’s orbit. “Do I look like your bitch? Get them yourselves.”
