"Cora." He called, eyes caressing my face in a way that I so badly wanted for his fingers to instead. "Tell me to stop."
I gulped, the words frozen on the tip of my tongue.
"Cora, tell me now." He repeated, growing more agitated as his gaze moved do...
Long chapter incoming - make sure you've got lots of time and snacks :)
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A powerful gust of wind greeted us as we made our way out of the door.
I looked over to Cora for what was supposed to be a split second, but found myself transfixed by the way tendrils of her hair danced over her forehead.
"What is it?" She asked, moving a curl out of the way self consciously.
"Nothing." I shook my head and forced my eyes away from her face.
They ended up on the landscape in front of me instead, pleased by what there was to be seen.
Although we were still quite far away from sea and sand, we had walked for long enough to have the ground change underneath our feet from hard concrete to irregular cobblestones.
The journey so far had been mostly on the same terrain, so I turned to warn Cora about the next uphill stretch.
I found that her eyes were already on me when my head spun to face hers, and I was eerily faced by the realisation of what it must feel like for her when I do it.
It was nice.
Actually, screw that. Nice didn't even come close.
It was like being looked at in a way that you knew stretched a little deeper than what the eyes could see.
Than what everyone else could see.
A warmth spread through me, but I ignored it in favour of getting my next sentence out. "Just so you know, we're going to be walking uphill for a little bit."
She nodded, but I could see hesitancy swirling around in her eyes. "How long is a little bit?"
I paused, thinking. We had been fast up until now so assuming we sustained that it wouldn't take much longer. "A little under twenty minutes, probably."
She looked forward for a moment, staring at the spaces between the cobbles and the overgrown grass before her eyes returned to me.
I had been expecting her to tell me that she was tired, and wanted to wait a bit before we tackled Cornwall's landscape all over again.
So she almost knocked me on my arse with the dimpled smile she gave me, grabbing my hand and pulling me forward. "Let's go."
While she charged ahead with me in tow, I had time to think about what had been brought to the forefront of my mind.
Cora seemed different.
And I wasn't sure why that was, but I had noticed it since this morning.
When I stood at the door asking her to come to me and she did, with barely even a moment's hesitation, I sensed a shift.
I was trying not to read into it too much for fear of getting my hopes up, but as I looked at her now and she made eye contact with me, I could've sworn that the gleam in her eyes wasn't there because of the scenery around us.
