Page 186 of A Reign of Chromes & Shadows

Jay was fighting his way around an elderly couple entering the café, muttering rushed apologies as he squeezed past them.

“Sorry—excuse me—sorry—”

He stumbled out onto the footpath, chest rising and falling with uneven breaths.

“Oh, thank fuck,” Jay exhaled, relief flooding his features as he finally reached Rain.

Rain’s brow arched, amusement flickering despite the storm inside him.

He couldn’t fathom why Jay had followed him.

Why he’d chased him out of the café.

Why he looked like he’d sprinted through a battlefield just to catch him.

Confusion tangled with something far more dangerous;hope.

A small, traitorous spark that flared in his chest before he could smother it.

He forced his expression into neutrality, burying the chaos beneath a mask he’d worn his entire life. He would not let Jay see the yearning clawing at him from the inside.

Jay, having caught him, suddenly seemed to lose all momentum.

He stood there awkwardly, shoulders tense, biting his plump lower lip; the same nervous habit Rain had once found unbearably endearing. The words he’d chased Rain down to say now seemed trapped behind his teeth.

The sun blazed overhead, heat pooling on the pavement, making the moment feel even more suffocating. Jay’s gaze stayed locked on Rain, those frustratingly beautiful blue eyes swirling with emotion, with longing, with fear, with things he clearly didn’t know how to voice.

Rain’s patience thinned.

Not with Jay but with the silence.

He lowered his energetic shield, reaching out instinctively to read Jay’s intentions.

The moment he touched Jay’s energy, he staggered internally.

It was chaos.

A storm of longing, fear, regret, desire, confusion; all knitted together so tightly Rain couldn’t separate one emotion from the next. His own heart was too raw, too bruised, too hopeful to interpret anything clearly.

He was stranded between wanting to believe and knowing better.

He swallowed, forcing his voice steady.

“Did you want something?”

A simple question but Jay’s energy surged in response, a tidal wave of emotion that screamed You. I want you.

Rain’s breath hitched.

He stepped back instinctively, hands diving into his pockets to stop himself from reacting—from reaching—from giving himself away.

Jay flinched at the movement, misreading it as rejection. His expression soured, shoulders curling inward.

“I just came to tell you that you don’t have to leave because of me.”

Rain stared at him incredulously.

They both knew that wasn’t why he’d come out here.