No Reverse by Marion Croslydon

Author:Marion Croslydon [Croslydon, Marion]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

twenty-two

I took the opposite direction from where I’d come earlier, away from the town center, the only part of Oxford I was familiar with. It was still the same street but the houses became more sparse. And so did the streetlights.

As I started down some steps, the wet touch of a raindrop fell on my cheek. And another. I stared up, but the night sky couldn’t tell me if it would stop at one or if I was in for some torrential weather. Like the other day outside the museum.

I shrugged. Whatever… I didn’t care. A natural shower was what I needed. While the drip-drop of the rain intensified, I took notice of where I was. I stood on one side of a canal with riverboats anchored along the bank. Not Venice quite, but not the Oxford I’d seen so far.

I started along the bank, bordered on my left by a wall. I squinted because the only lights around were those filtering through the small windows of the boats. The rain got serious, ran through my eyelashes, down my cheeks, my throat and through the line between my breasts.

Finding somewhere to hide would be the smart idea right now. Instead, I extended my bare arms, opened up the palms of my hands, and let the drops bounce back on them. When we were kids, Josh and I used to run out wild under the summer rain. We lost it then, dancing and clowning around. More than once, it ended with a runny nose and a chesty cough.

I lifted my head, glanced at the sky again, then shut my eyes. I let myself travel back to those days when I’d been so happy, before Josh became more than a brother, before things became so complicated.

But “before” was also before Lucas, and I didn’t want a life without him.

“Cassie.” His voice came from behind me. Even through the curtain of rain surrounding me, I felt him. Still I didn’t turn. I didn’t want to face him. I didn’t want to face what he thought of me.

The touch of his fingers through my soaked top shook me. They tightened around my shoulder. Against my will, his pressure made me turn around. Slowly. Gently. Until I faced him.

With one single step, he filled the void between us. I couldn’t look at him in the eyes. Instead I stared at his shirt, stuck against his chest, his chest that rose in sync with his breathing, in rhythm with his heartbeat.

His hand slid from my shoulder to the nape of my neck and buried into the wet mass of my hair. I knew his next move before it even happened. His other hand grasped my hip, settled on the small of my back. He drew me toward him so that my breasts molded against his chest. Only then did I find the courage to look up. Still my eyes didn’t meet his. They settled on his lips and the drops of water tipping on their edge.

His lips came closer.

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