His lips trail down my neck, sending shivers all over.
"I love looking at you," he breathes, brushing the hair off my shoulders. "Will you let me look at you?"
My heart hammers, a wild thing seeking his. "Yes."
So he does. And I feel it. For a long...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
........................................ NOAH
Fuck, where did my confidence go? I clear my throat. What the fuck did Camila do to me last night?
Her hand reaches out, grabs my shirt, pulls me in. To the bed.
"Cam," I say, my hands finding the edge of the bed, pressing down. Her pull, though, is strong—not just her grip on my shirt.
My god. It's funny, the way life unfolds in layers, like those old-timey maps in my dad's study growing up, each one a different realm on parchment of my memory.
"Just lay down," Cam says.
Before I can wrap my arms around her, she beats me to it, pulling my head to her chest.
She wraps us both inside the blanket, a cocoon of warmth. Her fingers thread through my hair again, and just like that, I melt. Completely.
Irrevocably.
My dad, he had this thing about stars. The keepers of our stories, each one a burning ball of gas carrying the weight of human history.
Objectively, it doesn't make sense. The stars were around long before us.
But Camila, she's my star. Not in the clichéd, romantic way, but in the real, tangible sense.
It's a nice thought, if anything.
Her heartbeat is steady, her breaths are soft whispers against the top of my head. The world outside this blanket, this bed, it could crumble, and I'd be here.
"Noah?"
"Hm." It's all I can manage, my voice muffled against her chest. God, she smells so good. Always so sweet.
"I'm sorry," I start, my voice rough than I intend. "About last night, I'm sorry. For shutting down—with you. For not being... You were trying to help."
She holds me for a long moment. I can't tell if she's about to pull away or come closer.
"It's okay," she finally says.
I lean back, looking up at her for this. "No, it's not okay. You were there for me in a way no one has been in... ever, I think. I pushed you away. That's on me." The words tumble out, clumsy and tangled, but they're the most honest things I've said in a while. She deserves to hear them, to know that I don't take her kindness, her presence, for granted.
Cam's expression softens, her gaze warming in a way that thaws something tight and cold inside me.
There's this way she looks at me, like I'm more than the sum of my parts, like I'm someone worth fighting for. It's humbling, really.
"I don't know how to do this," I admit, the vulnerability in my voice making me wince. "I don't know how to... be like this with someone."
She leans forward, her forehead pressing against mine. "Just like this."
