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“Have you been to Crystal Palace Park before?”
When he shook his head, my smile widened. “It’s about half an hour away from here. It’s…a park.”
“I’d never have guessed from the name.” He nudged me with his arm. “Is there an actual palace made of crystal?”
“Not quite. There used to be a palace, though.” We passed the rest of the journey with me telling him everything I knew about the history of the park. It was fucking weird that I’d not only retained the information from my dad, but that Noah was genuinely interested in what I had to say.
When we were actually walking through the park, a lump formed in my throat that I couldn’t seem to dislodge. I tried talking, hoping that I sounded normal, even though inside I was all fucked up.
Why had we come here?
“My dad used to bring me here to see the dinosaurs.”
Noah shot me a look that was way too understanding. He didn’t even know about my dad, but it seemed like he’d guessed, somehow. “Yeah?” His voice was soft. “What was your favourite dinosaur when you were younger?”
I swallowed hard. “The T. rex, obviously.”
“I liked the raptors best. Probably because ofJurassic Park.” We stopped in front of a sculpture of a megalosaurus, and he stared at it. “This is…big.”
“Yeah.” Suddenly, I needed to get out of here. “Wanna see the maze?”
Noah didn’t miss a beat, instantly lightening the atmosphere. “Is it a-mazing?”
“Shut up.”
We headed over to the maze, which seemed to be more or less empty. When we entered it and were cut off from the rest of the world, surrounded by tall hedges on either side, I stopped. “Left or right? You pick.”
He grinned at me. “Don’t they say to always take a left turn in mazes?”
“If you say so.” I shrugged, returning his grin. “Left it is.” We began making our way through the maze, and he kept glancing over at me. I wanted to kiss him so fucking badly.
Gripping his arm, I tugged him into a dead end. “Come here.”
His eyes darkened, and he immediately came to me, winding his arms around my back and slanting his lips across mine.
This was what I needed.
I lost myself in his kiss. My cock hardened against him, but I didn’t do anything about it, just enjoying this moment of kissing him with the sun shining down on us, intercepted by the shadows cast by the maze.
When we broke apart, with swollen lips, both of us trying to catch our breaths, he exhaled a slow, heavy breath. “Do you want to go and find somewhere to sit down?” He pointed in the direction of the exit.
“Yeah. We should leave.” His mouth was way too tempting, and someone could come along at any moment.
When we were sitting on the grass, under a tree, I glanced at Noah, who was reclining back on his elbows.
“Like I said earlier, my dad used to bring me here when I was little, when I was into dinosaurs. He died when I was seven.”
The only reaction Noah gave me was to roll onto his side, one of his hands finding mine. He stroked his thumb across the back of my hand, and it gave me the courage to continue. “It was an accident at work. He was supposed to be coming to watch my first football match that day. I’d been told I had a place on the school team, and he was so proud.” My voice cracked, and I breathed in and out deeply until I’d managed to get myself under control again. “He never got to see me play.”
Noah made an agonised noise in the back of his throat, and he quickly glanced around us, then placed a soft kiss to my cheek.
“I’m not telling you this to get sympathy.” Fuck, whywasI saying all this to him? “Tell me about your family.”
He stared at me intently, squeezing my hand, before he nodded. “Okay. My family live in the Cotswolds, nearish to Burford, if you know where that is. There’s my mum and dad, and then my two sisters, Layla and Ami. They’re twins, but they’re not identical. They’re thirteen. No pets, unless you count the goldfish I used to have.”
“Do you have any pictures?”
Surprise crossed his features. “You want to see pictures of my family?”
