I barely make it two steps inside the front door before I have to stop, one hand braced against the wall.
“Aisling?”
Raf’s voice is close, immediate, and I feel the warmth of his presence as his familiar scent reaches my nose.
It’s treacherously comforting, and my heart flutters despite the heavy weight dragging it down.
“I’m fine,” I say reflexively, scrubbing at my cheeks. “I just need a second.”
Rather than letting me retreat, he steps closer, concern written openly across his face. “What’s wrong?” His voice is uncharacteristically soft, and it opens fissures in my chest.
I shake my head, a broken laugh escaping. “It’s nothing. Really. I’m just… Riley’s one of my favorite people in the world. And it’s hard saying goodbye when I don’t know when I’ll see her again.”
“That’s totally fair,” he says quietly, and the sincerity in his voice cracks something open inside me.
“I miss home,” I admit, sniffling miserably as I try to pull myself together. “I thought I was prepared for this, but… apparently, I wasn’t.”
Raf doesn’t hesitate as he closes the distance between us to pull me into his arms.
The contact is warm and solid and completely unexpected.
His chest is firm beneath my cheek, his arms sure and steady around my back.
I sink into him before I can stop myself, my fingers curling into the fabric of his sweater as I bury my face against him.
“You can have her here whenever you want,” he says softly. “And your family too. All of them.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I mumble, my voice muffled as he holds me close.
I don’t know if I mean that he doesn’t have to comfort me or that he doesn’t have to open up his home to my family, but whatever the case, I’m overwhelmingly grateful all the same.
“I want to,” he replies without pause. “And you can go visit them whenever you’d like—as long as you take a guard. For as long as you’re living here, this is your home. You’re not a prisoner, Aisling.”
Emotion surges so fast, it nearly knocks me over, and I lift my head to look up at him, resting my chin against his sternum, my eyes stinging for a completely different reason now. “Thank you,” I whisper.
A faint smile curves his mouth, drawing my gaze down, and suddenly, I realize how close our faces are.
Close enough that I can see the tiny scar near his jaw, hidden beneath his five-o’clock shadow, the flecks of gold in his hazel eyes when I look back up to find him watching me.
His gaze drops to my mouth, and my breath catches.
The air between us thickens.
Is he going to kiss me?
Does he want to?
Do I want him to?
It hits me like a bolt out of the blue that I do.
I want to feel Raf’s lips on mine, not out of anger, not out of drunken passion or pretending.
I want it because of this moment, because of the way he held Riley, because of the way he’s holding me now.
Somewhere over the course of this weekend, something inside me has shifted, softened, tilted dangerously toward hope, and it makes my chest pound as I wonder if he feels it too—this magnetic pull trying to bring us together despite all the obstacles that stand in our way.
For one suspended heartbeat, I’m sure he’s going to lean in and kiss me.
