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“This.” He waved a hand around to encompass the space. “Did you know that there used to be a set of huge oil tanks here, back when this was a power station?”
“I had no idea.”
He seemed to take that as an invitation to keep talking, launching into an account of the history of the gallery. I found myself caught up in his enthusiasm, a smile curving across my face as I listened to him.
“Noah?”
We both turned at the harshly spoken word that seemed to echo through the huge industrial space we were standing in. My smile was wiped away as I took in Liam standing there, his fists clenched at his sides and his mouth set in a flat line.
I swallowed hard at the dark look on his face, then turned back to the guy who’d been speaking to me. “Uh. My friend’s here. I’d better go.”
He gave me what I could only be described as a sympathetic smile before walking away and leaving me alone with Liam.
We stood facing one another, our eyes locked. There was so much in Liam’s expression that I couldn’t read.
“Liam,” I whispered.
Fire burned in his eyes as he advanced on me. Without saying a word, he grabbed my wrist, roughly tugging me along, not stopping until we reached a corner, half hidden behind a concrete pillar.
He released his grip on my wrist, his hands going to my shoulders and pressing me back against the wall, crowding into my space.
“Tell me you want this.” His voice was a low rasp, his breath hitting my lips.
Did he realise how fucking weak I was for him? I’d just broken my one rule about never being alone with him, and I didn’t give a single fuck.
I knew that if I told him no, he’d leave, but everything in me wanted him to stay. Angling my head forward, I brushed my lips across his. “I want this.”
My words were swallowed by his mouth covering mine, hard and urgent.
The kiss eventually turned softer, and he sighed against me, his hands sliding from my shoulders, down my arms, to my hands. Threading our fingers together, he rested his forehead against mine, breathing heavily. “Sorry. I know you wanted space to figure things out, but…fuck, Noah. When I saw your face when I was with Kira’s friend, I had to come and find you. I wasn’t interested in her. Not even a bit. And then I come down here and find you looking cosy with some fit bloke, I just. I couldn’t fucking handle it.”
“Don’t want me but don’t want anyone else to have me?” The words came out more sharply than I’d intended.
“I do want you. That’s the fucking problem,” he muttered. “At the risk of sounding like a cliché, it’s not you, it’s me.”
“It’s okay.” Rubbing my thumb across the back of his hand, I leaned my head back against the wall. It wasn’t okay, not really, but until we worked out this thing between us, we were stuck here in this limbo. “I still can’t give you an answer about whether I can do this or not. I’m sorry.”
“I told you before, you have nothing to be sorry about. I wish I could just… Everything’s so fucked up in my head.”
The agony in his voice killed me, and I disentangled one of our hands and cupped the back of his neck. He let his head fall forward to rest on my shoulder, a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a groan vibrating against my skin.
Swallowing around the lump in my throat, I stroked my fingers across the short hairs at his nape. “We probably shouldn’t have kissed, should we?”
“No. Probably not.” I felt him press a kiss to my collarbone, and then he raised his head, his gaze soft as he looked into my eyes. “Wanna look around the rest of the gallery with me?”
“Yeah, alright.” I fell into step beside him as we started walking back the way we’d come. “Did you know that this used to be a power station? I happen to have learnt several facts about this part of the gallery recently. You might find them interesting.”
He laughed, bumping his shoulder against mine, and I smiled.
