Page 62 of Only After We Met

His rapid breathing…the taste of him.

I felt all of it in that instant.

30

Rhys

I slid my tongue along her lower lip before sinking it into her mouth and looking for more. More. As I kissed her, I forgot I was four hundred feet in the air, I forgot my fear of heights, and I forgot that this wasn’t supposed to happen. All I could think about was her, how good she smelled, how good she tasted, her body pressed against mine, how I needed more of her, much more, how I never wanted to let her go. Impossible things.

I groaned against her lips. Closed my eyes.

She came in for more. Slow. Soft.

And I let her. Vertigo: that kiss, something I’d never felt before. Vertigo: that was her. Looking at her and knowing thatweno longer existed.

I don’t know how long we were there…

Lost in that moment…

So close to the moon…

31

Ginger

I didn’t know what I was thinking when I decided to kiss him. It was one of the few times I’d ever let an impulse, a whim, what I really wanted, carry me away. And I knew if I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. Despite everything that started on top of that Ferris wheel late in the evening. Despite all that changed. Despite all that broke and was born in that moment. Because sometimes, a small act is destined to mark your whole life, to set you on a path that wasn’t even there a moment before. Even if we’re not aware of it at the time.

But I did know. And I knew it would hurt when we got out and I saw his face, the tension in his jaw and shoulders. And I knew it had been worth it to chase the memory. Sometimes you just know, even when knowing stings.

We walked through a nearby park in silence. The snow was falling harder and starting to stick, covering the ground with a fine layer of white that shone under the orange of the streetlamps. Rhys sighed as I tried to catch up with him.

“Could you stop running?” I asked.

He was taking long, quick steps, almost leaving me behind. He turned. His face was cloaked in shadow. “That shouldn’t have happened, Ginger. I’m sorry.”

“Why not?” I finally reached him. “Rhys…”

“It’s ruined everything.”

“That’s not true. It hasn’t.”

“I have nothing to give you.”

I crossed my arms. I was wounded, angry. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don’t want anything from you? I know how things are, Rhys. I know it may be years until we see each other again. Or maybe we never will. But I wanted that. I wanted to kiss you tonight…”

“Dammit, Ginger…”

“And you did too.”

“You’re going to make everything complicated.”

“We just have a few hours.”

“Shit,” he grunted between clenched teeth, running a hand through his hair.

From his expression, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. He just shook his head again, barely, as if to himself, then stepped forward, and I felt his body against mine, one of his hands on my neck, and he pushed my chin up softly and covered my lips with his in a kiss so deep, so different from any other, that it seemed unfair to call it just a kiss. After all, there were many kinds of kisses. Rhys’s were intense and warm, full of all the things we had suppressed up to then. I hadn’t dared to admit that I needed him. I was addicted to him, to everything he had given me through those words we exchanged every day. I wanted to know more about theRhys from years ago, who had run off in search of something he still hadn’t found, and the Rhys from tonight, who had made this the most special birthday I’d ever known.

I don’t remember how long it took us to reach the hotel.