Page 21 of Hook, Line, Infinity, Part 3

Talon

TOMORROW - FLY BY MIDNIGHT

“Snowflake,I have two tickets to a concert… damn it.” Not Snowflake, she gets snappy when you call her that. I shake my head and exhale slowly while staring at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. “Rein, I have two tickets to a Dermott Kennedy concert tomorrow night. Would you like to come with me? We can have dinner or a drink beforehand and talk?” Oh wait, she’s pregnant, the book said no alcohol during pregnancy.

Fuck.

Come on Talon, for God’s sakes man get it together. This isn’t some chick you’re picking up at a bar, this is the woman you love, the mother of your unborn baby. Fuck it, I’m just going to go for it, what’s the worst she could do? Say no? Tell me to go fuck myself? This conversation needs to be had, she keeps avoiding me and while I understand, it’s beginning to grate on last nerve. It’s almost been three weeks since she started working here and I’ve been plenty patient and respectful of her space, but I can’t take much more.

Determined, I walk out of the bathroom and go on a hunt for her. If I know Rein, she’s hiding in her classroom again. It’s four forty in the afternoon on a Friday, most classes are over by two and the students have left for the weekend. There’s two more weeks left of the semester or term as they call it here in the UK before they break for the summer.

I go through what I want to say walking toward her classroom which is situated at the other end of the art department. My ears pick up on the music filtering from the room. The door is ajar, I smile when I see her sitting on a stool in front of a canvas, painting. She’s in a powder blue floral sundress, a white apron tied loosely around her waist. She’s got her back to the door, so she’s unaware I’m standing there. Usually, Rein has her earphones in when she paints because it helps her switch off and focus better, but this time her music is playing melodiously from the speakers of her phone. Leaning against the doorframe I’m mindful to not make a sound while I watch her paint. Not that it would matter, when Rein is in her zone, she tends to tune everything out.

You know your love for someone is true when you can spend an eternity admiring them and never tire of it. What I presumed to be love for Taylor seems insignificant now when compared to how I feel about Rein. I loved Taylor, of course I did, and it hurt like high hell to lose her, but looking back at the past six months without Rein, I finally understood the meaning of what it felt like to slowly die whilst still breathing.

The more my love grew for her, the more terrified I was of losing her.

Back then I was young, frivolous and perhaps a little naïve in the ways of the world. If Taylor didn’t wind up pregnant, I wonder if we would have eventually drifted apart. When Tay would ask me the reasons I loved her, the answers came easy. I didn’t have to think about it too hard. With Rein though, I struggle to find the words to express the way I feel about her.

This inexplicable warmth engulfs me from the tips of my toes to the top of my head when she’s nearby or even when she crosses my mind. The love that I feel for Rein doesn’t just come from the heart, it comes from someplace deeper, it comes from the soul. It’s almost like her heart is singing a song that’s meant solely for me, that only I can hear.

“Ow…”

I start from my musings and straighten instantly when I hear Rein’s hiss of pain. “Snowflake?” I utter and move toward her when I see her hold her stomach. Rein turns her head and looks at me over her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Rein blinks, startled to see me. “Talon? What are you doing here?”

“I work here, Snowflake. Remember?”

Are her cheeks reddening or is it just me? Rein swiftly averts her gaze and slides off the stool. She clears her throat and looks down at the brush in her left hand, “I meant in here, in my classroom, Professor.”

Oh, how I used to hate hearing her call me Professor, but now, I can’t hear enough of it. “I came looking for you, but then I got distracted when I saw you were painting. I forgot how captivating you look when you paint. I could honestly sit and watch you paint tirelessly.”

Rein’s hand that is cleaning the paint brush halts and she turns to peer up at me, her brows slowly knitting together tightly while staring at me like I had suddenly sprouted a second head.

“What?” she whispers dazedly.

My eyes scan her flushed face. I inch a touch closer, “Snowflake, are you okay?” Rein nods and she swallows thickly and abruptly takes a giant step back from me forgetting about the canvas behind her. Her back collides with it, and it wobbles on its legs before it tumbles over. Acting on impulse I reach out and catch it before it hits the floor trapping Rein between my chest and the canvas.

I peer down into her upturned face, and she stares up at me with her cheeks rosy, and her full lips parted. No woman has ever taken my breath away quicker than she does. One look from her—especially when she looks at me the way she is right now—and my brain malfunctions.

We’re standing so close that her body is pressed flush against mine and I’m certain she can feel the erratic pounding of my heart. I’m sucked deep into a trance gazing into her large eyes, fighting off every urge in my body pleading with me to just lean down and gently brush her lips apart and kiss her till the very last drop of oxygen is depleted from my lungs.

“I have to go,” she whispers, briefly glancing down at my arms caging her in and then back up at me again.

“Run away again, you mean?”

“I’m not running away.”

“No?” She frowns and pins me with an irritable look. “Because it sure as hell seems like it.”

Rein averts her gaze shaking her head, “What do you want from me?” she questions turning to look at me again, her dark brows fused.

“You know what I want.” I answer bluntly.

“What?!”

“You!” I exclaim.

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