Page 155 of Meet Me at the Metro

Nora’s eyes sparkle with the lights of the club as she looks up at me through long, dark lashes, and the gaze she gives me is nearly enough to bring me to my damn knees.

“Is this distracting enough?” She taunts, turning against me until her back is flush with my chest. She rolls her hips—wickedly brushing her backside against my groin.

My mouth goes bone fucking dry.

I imagine her doing that for me back at home… Imagine how alluring the sight of her tangled in my bedsheets is… Imagine the masterpiece hiding underneath that sexy black dress...

Bloody hell, she’s actually distracting me.

Nora’s remedy in human form.

I drink up every drop of relief she extends to me as her arms reach around to clutch my neck. It’s when her fingers intertwine into the hair on the back of my head, roughly tugging the strands as she rolls her hips a second time, that my collected composure crumbles.

“I wouldn’t keep doing that if I were you,” I warn, though stopping is the last thing I’d like her to do.

“No?”She turns to face me again. “Why not, Teddy?”

I glance to the point where our bodies connect—the area where all my blood is rushing to and give her a sly grin. “Can you not feel why, Nora?”

A flush creeps up her neck, staining the apples of her cheeks a deep red. “So you’re having fun, then?”

“Watching you, yes.”

“I put on a good performance, huh?”

“You don’t have to perform,” I tell her, clutching her small neck in my hand. My thumb places light, languid strokes against her heated skin, and before I even realize it, my body is swaying with hers. I’m losing myself to the music—to her. “I’d enjoy just watching you breathe.”

That statement has a smile lighting up her entire face, and I marvel at it for as long as she allows me to before it fades away. “You think too highly of me, you know?”

“I think just enough of you.”

We spend the next few hours with our bodies entangled, dancing together and with our friends to every hit song the DJ spins to life. What surprises me the most is how much I find myselfnothating it—how much I’m growing to enjoy dancing, so long as I get to do it with her.

Everything in my life felt so much more gratifying with her—everything.Thinking about her leaving to go back to the States at the end of the school year is beginning to grow a pit in my stomach the size of an entire universe.

Because Nora is so quickly becoming my entire world.

At the front of the club, the stream of spotlights grabs everyone’s attention to the massive projection screen looming behind the DJ. The entirety ofBangerz Uptownbellows with screams, cheers, and yells as it streams the countdown into the New Year. For a moment, everyone inside the club is in sync, crying out the numbers flashing on the screen.

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Happy New Year!”

As we all shout the words, I glance at my friends, finding myself indescribably thankful for everything that’s transpired over the past few months to get us to this point. My gaze even snags on Connor for a split second. Things weren’t even close to being resolved between us, but at this moment, I believe that maybe we could eventually reach that resolution.

If not for anything other than Nora’s sake.

She’s beaming at me with a childlike expression as confetti rains down on us from above. Shiny, shimmering pieces of it find their way into the waves of her hair, and the sight of it has me grinning like a fool.

Rising to the tips of her toes, Nora brings her lips to mine and kisses me deeply. There’s so much yearning between us as our mouths collide that it feels as though this single kiss is cumulative of all the ones that have come before—an intoxicating prelude to all the ones promised after.

“Happy New Year,” she sweetly tells me as our lips part.

For the first time in a long time, I feel optimistic about the coming year—I feel hopeful.

“Happy New Year, pretty thing.”

The DJ doesn’t wait for the crowd to settle before playing the rest of his set. The rowdy hollers of the New Year celebration fade into the steady thrum of a new melody. It’s so loud that I barely discern the shout that cuts through the air near us. That is, until another shrill shout, sounding closer now, hits my ears.

“Gun! They have a gun!”

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