Fighting hearts

Chapter Eleven

Their kiss only lasted seconds, but the tension of it was enough for Roth to be out of breath and to have shaking knees.

"Evie..." His voice was raspy.

Before Evie could answer, his large hands grabbed her waist and pulled her in, capturing her mouth once more, wanting her taste on his tongue again.

Evie wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him even closer towards her. They were passionate, hungry for each other, tasting everything the other had to offer. Their lips parted. "Good h-heavens," Evie breathed out.

Roth smiled. "I can't believe this is happening." He really couldn't. But it was real. He'd confessed to her, and she had answered him with a kiss. With a kiss!

"Neither can I." Evie let her forehead rest on his shoulder. "I hope none of the neighbors saw this." She chuckled. "It's not very well-mannered to behave like this in public."

"But it feels good."

"It does." She took a step back and bit her bottom lip, which was all red and swollen.

Roth loved the look of it, though, knowing that the coarse stubble of his beard had contributed to that.

"Maybe we should head to work?" he asked.

"I think you are right about that," she answered, looking up at him. "More privacy..."

Roth's stomach fluttered, remembering that the route to The Pits was often private. Most of the spectators and guests of honor arrived later, right before the match started—and by carriage—so Roth and Evie usually didn't cross paths with anybody during their walk. Sometimes, they met a colleague along the road, but this rarely happened.

On they went, hand in hand.

"I must say," Roth said, "that this day went from shitty to glorious."

"Glorious sounds better than shitty." Evie looked at their joined hands.

"Is this too much?" Roth asked. "Walking hand in hand?" He didn't want to fuck anything up by acting too needy or too possessive, or too—

"Not too much. It's nice." She squeezed his hand a bit. "Feels good to me."

"I agree."

They chuckled together.

"I'm sorry you had a busy day, though," Evie said. "And for what it's worth, I've been dealing with the same thoughts as you have. Well, maybe not exactly the same thoughts, but I was confused and overthinking a lot too."

"Because of Saturday?"

"Yes."

"I figured you might have gotten the idea that I wasn't into you." Roth scratched his head. "That was actually the main reason I wanted to confess today. I would have been great at keeping my mouth shut for months to come, but I feared I gave off the wrong impression. That I made you think I rejected you because I didn't like you and that I hurt your feelings." He looked at her. "And that was the last thing I wanted. I was afraid I had ruined things forever. And that I might have lost you forever."

Evie gave him a look, her eyes soft and her mouth smiling. "It stung, yes," she said, "but it wasn't like things would have been ruined between us. Worst case scenario, I would have had to live with some shame and disappointment for thinking I was rejected. But I wouldn't have abandoned our friendship. You're a silly man."

"I can be. And I can also be more pessimistic than you think."

"You've been hurt before. Haven't you?" she carefully asked.