“I don’t know what to do with this anymore, Anna.”My voice is rough, barely above a whisper.“I don’t know what to do withyou.With this… ache.”I rub my hand across my chest like it will somehow lessen what radiates from that space.
She blinks, caught off guard, but I keep going.
“I know I screwed up back then.I know I hurt you.But that’s not what this is about.I didn’t play that song because I wanted to fix something that’s broken.”I exhale, shaking my head.“I played it because I wanted you to hear me.To know that every time I look at you, my brain just—stops.”
She swallows, her throat working around something unsaid, but I’m not done.
“I wanted you to know that it’s not just guilt.It’s not just regret.”I let out a shaky breath.“God, you’re so infuriating, Anna.But I love it.I love your fire, your wit, your goddamn stubbornness.Somehow, I’m even attracted to the way you make me crazy.And I don’t—I don’t know what it means.I don’t know where to put it—what the hell to do with it.I just?—”
Her hands are clenched into fists.She’s vibrating with tension, and I expect her to shove me, to yell at me, to do something.
Instead, she whispers, “You don’t get to say that.”
“I do.”I take another step.“And I mean it.Fuck, I mean every word of it.”
She inhales sharply, eyes darting away like she’s looking for a way out, but there isn’t one.She’s trapped here with me, just like I’m trapped with this thing between us.
Her breath is shaky when she finally speaks.“You’re insane.Bonkers.Out of your fucking mind.”
“Maybe.”I nod, slow.Then, shrug.“Maybe not.”I drop my voice even lower and confess, “But I know I wantyou.”
There.It’s out—and I can’t take it back.
Her gaze snaps to mine.Her lips part like she’s about to say something, but she doesn’t.Maybe she can’t.
For a moment, we just stand there.
The air between us is electric, buzzing with everything unspoken, everything denied.
Her breath is coming fast, but she refuses to look directly at me.
I step in closer—slow, deliberate.Close enough that I know she feels the heat between us, the pull that’s always been there, even when we were too damn young to name it.
“You feel it too,” I murmur.“I know you do.”
She flinches, but her gaze flicks back to mine, burning with frustration.“No.”
I shake my head, a hint of a smile slipping through.“Liar.”
Her fingers twitch, like she’s fighting the urge to do something—shove me, pull me closer, I don’t even know.
Maybe she doesn’t either.
I lower my voice, let it roughen around the edges.“You think I don’t see the way you look at me?The way your breath catches when I get close?It’s the same for you.Iknowit is.”
She shakes her head, stubborn as ever, but she’s shaken.
“Tell me I’m wrong,” I press, stepping even closer.
She doesn’t.
Her chest rises and falls too fast, her throat working around words she won’t let herself say.
I lift my hand and trail my fingertips along the column of her neck, needing to feel her beneath them.
A sharp inhale.A full-body shudder.
She’s breathing hard, her chest rising and falling too fast, like she’s just run a mile.