𝘾𝙀𝙊. - 𝘾𝙀𝙊 𝙓 𝙍𝙀𝘼𝘿𝙀𝙍

29.

━━━

There is a warmth.

It grazes my shoulders, brushing the prickles of my skin by its seething heat. My shoulders refuse to hold a flinch, but simply tense in both rawness and vulnerability.

We stand upon the balcony, the night sky glittered by the silvers of the stars across the horizon. 

The Eiffel Tower gleams in both a national statement, and a welcome into it's space, as it blesses us with the most outstanding of sights to behold. 

The air stills, only to continue brushing the faintest string of autumn-like air across my cheeks. 

It stands at a comfortable temperature that doesn't plague my skin with chills, but cools the scarlet heat that's tainted my cheeks in the pulse of my rapid heartbeat. 

And the heat continued; my attention is drifted back to his touch.

His touch. 

My senses drown in the city before us, the distant movement of cars passing through the streets, the speckle of on and off lights across different hotels beyond us, reminding us of the lives shared within a space, but lives that follow a different path than ours. 

Sonder flourishes across my mind for a moment, its feelings bringing me back to him, also realising,

he has had his own life and experiences, thoughts and feelings I will never know, nor comprehend.

And yet, we find ourselves, brought upon the same floor to let the weight of the world set in our eyes.

I breathe in, and out. 

And yet, his touch only continues, his fingers slowly trailing up the sides of my neck, his body heat flushing over my back. 

My body tightens, his touch grazing through the back of my locks, until he guides the strands of my hair to one side of my shoulder.

My breathing spikes. 

Its such an unfathomable, instantaneous form of fervour, it's almost sickening how quickly I react to one man's touch. But to love a man will only ever bring the most extreme of emotions, and this is the curse I've willingly held. 

I inhale with a sharp breath, the sudden brush of his lips across my neck spiking my skin into a million needles. 

"...What are you thinking about...?"

He only exhales, his voice a deep line of simple curiosity as his arms loosely slide around my waist. My heart slams against my chest, the deep fuzziness of a warmth bursting through my veins. 

Intoxicating. 

I hesitate, my words within my mind only bringing me a certain weight of trepidation, but I can only attempt to avoid the falter of my own words. 

"...D...do you t...think- think this- us- do you actually w...want a f...future with m-me...?"

And what passes over us, is the tightest, most weighted silence to ever grace the earth. 

And suddenly, I both doubt, second guess, and even regret my words within a singular second.

Oh, to feel. 

An absolute curse to experience in the most intense moments. 

And this moment is no exception.

I can feel his body grow rigid, almost as if his body is reacting before his mind is. 

I can only assume that, by the fact that he,