Cause and Effect

Ten

The door to my hotel room was unlocked, which told me that my assumptions about Neymar's whereabouts had been correct, even before I entered the room, and saw him lying on my bed on his back, as if he owned the place. He was holding my phone in his hands.

"I was wondering when you'd show up," he stated, turning his head to look at me. "Did you win your race?"

"No," I replied, shortly.

I was in no mood to indulge his sense of humour.

"Oh," replied Neymar, sitting up, and swinging his feet round to the floor. I was pleased to see he'd at least taken his shoes off before resting on my bed. "Then perhaps you want your phone back now?"

"Neymar," I sighed. "I don't want to play this game anymore."

He raised an eyebrow, the amusement leaving his features, and an enquiring look appearing in its place.

"Why's that?" He asked, quietly.

"You know exactly why, so don't pretend you don't," I retorted. "I don't want Alexis to assume there's anything going on between us."

He stood up, and chuckled, as he walked over to stand in front of me. At least he had a shirt on now.

"Not that long ago, you were telling me you two were just friends," he said. "Not that I believed a word of it, of course."

I was about to reply that things had changed since then, but I was caught by the look of determination in his hazel eyes, and bit back the retort, wondering where this was going. I was unable to resist him as he again rested his hands on my waist, and pulled me to him, not once breaking our eye contact.

You could have cut the tension in a room with a knife.

"You don't want to play anymore," he murmured. "But maybe I do, and I don't see that you really get a choice in that. You and I both know this isn't really a game we're playing anymore. I don't want to hurt Alexis any more than you do, but he's had three years to make a move on you, and he hasn't."

As he spoke, his face moved closer to mine, distracting me from the surprise I ought to have felt at his words. I had no idea he actually had feelings for me. But he was wrong about Alexis.

"He has made a move," I responded, after a moment.

Neymar scoffed.

"During the last couple of days. My point still stands. And I haven't learnt nothing about who you are as a person during our short and passionate friendship. I know I have a chance with you."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

Neymar paused for a moment, as if searching my eyes for something, before colliding our lips together. He kissed me with more feeling and affection than I could ever have expected, and all thoughts of anything but him fled from my mind, leaving me without the power of doing anything else but kissing him back.

As soon as I did so, I felt his lips curved into a smile. I subconsciously brought my hands up from his chest, where they'd fallen as he'd pulled us close together, and rested them behind the back of his neck, playing with the short bits of his hair. When we kissed, it was like the whole world melted away. And when we finally pulled away, it was only out of need to breathe. He rested his forehead against mine, and I blinked my eyes open to stare at him.

"That's how I know," he murmured against my lips, pressing another kiss to them gently.

I sighed, feeling all the thoughts and feelings from the past few days rushing back to me.