Page 56 of A Lab Rat's Guide to Fated Love
With a surprised chuckle, she pulled his face back to hers to taste him again; and it was pure bliss. Their tongues danced together, diesel and fire, while her fingers tangled in his hair, never wanting to let go and never wanting to stop.
She couldn’t remember a single reason why she’d ever resisted this—resistedhim. Her breath caught as his palm ran along the length of her spine and her own hands developed a mind of their own. It wasn’t long before they were roaming around under his shirt to feel every smooth surface and bump, every muscle and bone, and the scar marking his sternum. His heart fluttered like a feisty hummingbird under her palm.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
“Vir…” she hissed.
Vir’s grip on her tightened in response, and his kisses became gentler, yet somehow more urgent. As he pressed closer, something hard grazed the inside of her thigh.
And just like that, her chest became a coffin.
She wheezed without sound as invisible nail after nail hammered right into it, reminding her that was too late. That she was never going to breathe again.
Fifteen
And Now That You Know
February 2019:
Kochi, Kerala
Vir
One moment, Nori was kissing himlike she wanted to devour him whole, with her hands roaming freely under his shirt as if memorizing every crease and contour, and driving him wild in the process.
But then the moment shifted, and like a switch had flipped, her entire body locked up.
She froze in his arms, and the drastic shift in her mood made him freeze, too. Her rapidly fading desire and warmth gave way to terror. A cold, suffocating kind that made it hard for him to breathe just by picking it from her.
“Nori?” he asked, breathless under her rising panic. “What happened?”
She opened her mouth to respond, but no sound came out. She clutched her throat and started wheezing, her face pale and eyes wide in horror.
“What’s wrong?” he asked again, reaching for her.
Nori recoiled before slamming her hands into his chest to push him away.
“No,” she croaked. And as he stepped back, she slid down from the counter to collapse on the floor in a heap.
“Nori…” Vir reached for her again.
“Don’t touch me!” She shrieked, before lurching to her feet and stumbling her way to the bathroom.
He stared after her in shock. He’d triggered something. Something big.
“Nori… Please talk to me,” he spoke through the door. “Are you okay?”
“P—panic—attack,” she managed between deep gulps of air.
“I’m right here,” he said, and it took everything in him to keep himself from bursting through the door and rushing to her side. But he had a feeling his proximity would only make things worse. “I won’t come in unless you say so. Just tell me what you need. What can I do?”
“Please, just—leave me—alone.”
“Okay.”
He slid to the floor outside and sat with his arms wrapped around his knees. For the longest time, he kept feeling her pain as wave after wave stabbed through his chest, draining him from the inside out. After what felt like an hour, maybe more, the waves started to die down. Once he was sure she’d been calm enough for a while, he tapped lightly on the fiber and glass panel.
“Nori?”
