Page 22 of Lovers in Lockdown

If only a sinkhole could open up right now and save me from Noah and this conversation and his flying, eye-gouging spatula.

‘Oh - no -’ he stutters. ‘No - we don’t need to talk about last -’

But my mouth is already spewing out words that my brain hasn’t authorised. ‘I knew it was wrong, okay? I didn’t know what you were doing until I saw you and I was thirsty and I only wanted a glass of water and I didn’t mean to watch, but I just couldn’t look away andOh God,I’m not a pervert, I promise. Please,please,can we just forget all about this and never mention it again?’

Now would be a really wonderful time for death to take me.

‘Wait, what? Say that again. How long exactly were you standing there?’

Oh no.Me and my stupid big mouth. This situation couldnotget any worse.

‘What?’ I whisper.

‘I thought you only caught… the grand finale.’ The corner of his lip twitches and I realise with abject horror that the asshole is actuallyenjoyingthis.

‘Right. That’s right,’ I lie. ‘Only the end.’

‘But you just said -’

‘No.’

Shut it down, Honey, shut it the fuck down.

‘Yes. You just said that you didn’t mean to watch itall.’ The dickface actually has the audacity to grin.

‘No. No, I don’t think I did.’

I can’t look at him. Irefuseto be subjected to any more humiliation.

‘How long were you watching me Honey?’ His voice has suddenly dropped an octave and is now deep and sultry, like hot syrup. It sends shivers cascading down my body and makes my brain go foggy.

I don’t know whether to keep denying that I watched him, or collapse to my knees at his feet and confess all of my sins.

‘How long, Honey?’

He shouldn’t be allowed to speak with a voice this deep. It’s too sexy. It makes my head go all foggy and stops me thinking straight.

‘A while,’ I whisper breathlessly andoh God,I didn’t mean to admit that, but his voice is too damn deep and it’s making me all confused and my heart is beating like thunder and my breathing is heavy and my knickers are surprisingly damp and I don’t know what I’m doing, but suddenly I’m looking him straight in the eye and gasping, because his irises are inexplicably black and they’re staring straight at me with such intensity, I can feel the heat of his gaze on my skin.

‘A while,’ he repeats, rolling the words over his lips like cigarette smoke.

He takes a step towards me.

I hold my breath.

Something is happening between us, but my mind is so misty from the smokiness of Noah’s gaze, that I can’t formulate a clear enough thought to remind myself that this, whateverthisis, is not a good idea.

He stalks towards me until we’re only a breath apart. He’s so tall that my neck strains when I look up at him, which I’m trying desperately hard not to do because the longer I look into his eyes, the more they hypnotise me.

We’re standing toe to toe. I can feel the warmth of his breath on my cheek and smell the sweaty haziness that the day has left behind on his skin. It makes my head spin even more. He reaches out and brushes the back of his knuckles down my arm. Though he’s only touching me in one place, I can feel him everywhere. It’s overwhelming, it’stoomuch.

And yet nowhere near enough.

‘Can I tell you a secret?’ Noah whispers huskily in my ear and I want to nod, but Ican’tbecause I’m paralyzed by the trance that he’s trapped me in. ‘Last night when I saw you, I didn’t think you were real. I thought you were my imagination playing tricks on me.’

Holy shit.

Is he saying what I think he’s saying? Was he -

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