The rhythm is endless. The beat never stops. Even when the music has ceased and I crumple to my
knees, breathless. It is there in my mind, keeping time. Always keeping time.
The world around me does not exist.
Not until I open my eyes and meet his. And then everything becomes real again. Too real.
His eyes are moving over me. Over my art. Over the walls all around us. And over the most
intimate part of me that nobody was ever supposed to see.
Least of all him.
I can’t catch my breath. And before I can think, I am moving.
Running.
Towards the fire escape.
Away from him. Away from everything.
But he catches me around the arm. His grip is unyielding, and I can smell his cologne before he
even turns me around to face him. To face all of him.
“Chloe?”
There is confusion on his face. So much confusion. A demand for answers. Answers that I don’t
have to give.
I want him to feel vulnerable, in this moment. The way that I do. So I say the only thing I can think
of.
“Rellek.”
His grip on me tightens, and his eyes move lower. Lower.
As though he is only now realizing how little clothing I have on, and how close our bodies are. His
heat mingling with mine on this cool rooftop beneath the moon.
“Do you like it?” I ask.
“What?” his eyes snap back to mine.
And I lean up on my toes and do the thing that I’ve wanted to for a long time. I kiss him. And he
kisses me back. Yanking my body close to his. So close I can feel the amount of his want for me.
Pressed against my stomach.
We devour each other. For two of the best minutes of my entire life.
And then it all goes away. Because he takes it away.
Retreating from me and shaking himself out of it.