Page 115 of Midnights
Mental note,I need to start finding things wrong with Kane. ASAP.
“You know leprechauns are Irish, right?” He finally manages, running a hand through his soaked hair.
“Doesn’t Scotland have its own version of a leprechaun?”
I look over my shoulder and catch him mirroring me with his shoulders squared to the rain and his arms crossed.
I can't help but giggle.
His head tilts, just watching me.
“Maybe you should try it. You don’t have to do anything but feel."
I turn back to face the storm, closing my eyes, breathing in the smell of rain. There’s something about this place that feels alive. I’ve felt drawn here for years, but now that I'm here, everything about this place feels like magic.
“Sometimes I close my eyes, and just listen. Every sound, every breath, every flicker of light.”
I hesitate, peeking with one eye to gauge his reaction. This is usually where people start looking at me like I’ve lost my damn mind.
Maybe an internal 'Is this woman completely coo-coo for cocoa puffs?.'.. or a 'How fast can I disappear without looking obvious?'
I pride myself on being able to read people. Their words might be polished, filtered bullshit. But faces don’t lie. They always give something away.
Kane's doesn't.
Without warning, he closes his eyes and tilts his face up toward the rain. Shut. The. Fuck. Up. Is he… actually doing it?
My jaw almost hits the floor, and a laugh slips loose—cut short when he opens one eye, and lifts an eyebrow.
“What?” He genuinely looks confused now. “Am I doing it wrong?”
I'm completely floored. My brain scrambles for words, “Uh… no. You’re… doing great.”
Fantastic recovery, Raven. Absolutely award-winning.Heat rushes to my face, and I whip my head back toward the sky.
Who cares if he’s standing next to you? Or that his muscles are on full display, looking like every reckless decision I’ve ever wanted to make. Or that we just made out…
I take a slow breath, letting the storm calm my nerves. The low rumble of thunder rolls through the air, and it's a perfect distraction from the man currently taking up far too much space in my brain.
I let myself feel all of it. The storm. This place. And even the beautiful, annoying man standing next to me.
Minutes pass or maybe it was just seconds. But my heart finally steadies and my thoughts are no longer spinning out of control.
I open my eyes, and of course, he’s staring at me, again. My pulse skips. “How did it go? Did you feel anything?”
I’m half expecting him to shrug it off, and dodge with some sarcastic comment, but part of me wonders if he actually tried it.Detective Raven is officially on the case.
At first, he looks like he’s going to brush it off. “I felt… weird at first,” he admits, which is already more than I expected. “But then… I heard this buzzing in the air, but it also felt like it was under my skin. And the rain on my face, it was… refreshing.”
I blink, and for a second, I don’t even know what to say.Did he actually mean that?Kane, the man who treats emotions like a liability, just admitted something that sounded almost poetic.
Before I can process it fully, he surprises me again and keeps talking. “When I closed my eyes, it was like I could feel every drop of rain, every gust of wind. The sound of the rain, the rumble of the thunder. It felt alive, like everything around me was breathing.”
He pauses, looking at me. There's a rare openness on his face. “There’s a lot you can feel with this place, but I can’t say I've ever experienced that.”
I stare at him, with my mouth open, floored that he just said that. “Are you sure you didn’t hit your head out here?”
He huffs out a laugh, shaking his head. “Why? Because I said something deeper than ‘get on your knees’?”
