“Then explain it.”
His gaze drops, slow and deliberate, tracing the space between us before returning to my face.
“Because you’re not thinking about the sweep anymore,” he says.
The words settle into me, and I hate how accurate they feel.
“It should be the only thing I’m thinking about,” I reply.
“Probably,” he agrees.
Neither of us moves.
The silence stretches, but it isn’t empty. It fills with the sound of our breathing, with the faint hum of the systems, with the awareness of every inch of space that doesn’t exist between us.
“This is a bad idea,” I say.
“Yeah,” he replies.
“You’re not helping.”
“Wasn’t trying to.”
My breath catches slightly, and I don’t like that he notices.
“You keep doing that,” he says quietly.
“Doing what?”
“Pretending you don’t feel it,” he replies.
My pulse kicks harder, sharp and insistent.
“I feel it,” I say.
“Then why are you still here?”
The question lands hard, because I don’t have an answer that doesn’t unravel everything.
Instead of stepping back, instead of creating space, I reach for him.
My hand closes around the front of his uniform, fingers tightening, pulling him the rest of the way into me with a decisiveness that surprises even me. The contact snaps into place instantly, tension collapsing into something physical, something immediate that leaves no room for distance or denial.
“Maybe I’m done pretending,” I say, my voice lower now.
His breath shifts, sharper, and his hand comes up to my side, firm and steady, not forcing but not leaving either. Theheat between us spikes, the confined space amplifying every movement, every shift of contact.
“You’re sure about this?” he asks, his voice rougher now.
“No,” I answer honestly.
“That’s not reassuring.”
“Then stop me.”
He doesn’t.
The line that’s been sitting between us for weeks disappears completely, replaced by something heavier, something that pulls instead of resists. The tension that used to sit in our arguments, in the way we stood too close and refused to acknowledge it, redirects into something that demands attention instead of avoidance.
