Tornado (18+)

14- Tez

I regard her expression; closed eyes, parted lips, her face almost serene looking. I think Paisley's waiting for me to kiss her. Ego aside, I'm almost certain of it. And believe me, I want nothing more, but when I take the chance to glance around, we're hardly against a romantic setting or in a place that means anything to either of us.

It's been five long years, and although I've come close to kissing her once before, this time feels different. I feel different, something inside me is driving this reunion kiss to be more romantic, more meaningful, more than just a quick smooch next to a surf shop with teenagers gathered outside.

I want this electricity that crackles in the air around us to send lightning bolts through her. I want to kiss away all her memories of Seth's lips against hers. In fact just thinking about it makes me want to rip his fucking face off.

She's mine.

There's no one else like her. She's super smart without making you feel dumb as shit. She's impulsive and selfless and unlike a lot of women I've met, she doesn't try to be sexy, she just is.

This isn't right. In a split second I step away from her and take her hand.

"Wait! Where are we going?" Paisley's shriek is shrouded in laughter as I break out into a jog, pulling her with me.

"You'll see."

Five minutes later and two streets crossed, I pull her around the back of a building and up the three concrete steps and barricade her against the brick wall with my arms either side of her shoulders. "Do you remember this place?"

She turns her head to read the unlit sign to her right. Once it used to glow a neon red. Once this used to be the heart of Castleford. Once it belonged to us.

She half-smiles, trapping her bottom lip between her teeth. "Bleachers? You've brought me to Bleachers?"

I glance up at the sign and smirk. "Well, it's no longer in operation but the sentiment is still the same."

"How long has it been closed?"

"About ten months now. The landlord did a moonlight flit, left everything behind. No-one knows what happened to him. Rumor has it he got in with some bad people and he fled to Florence. How true that is though is anyone's guess."

Paisley sighs, staring at the shell of the club like she's quietly reminiscing. "It was a great place back in the day. It used to have some great DJ's headline."

"Yeah, but that's not the reason this club is special to me," I say. "You know why I've brought you here, don't you?"

She batters her eyelashes, a sexy smirk tugging on her lips. "Of course. This is where we shared our first kiss."

I nod as if to clarify that fact for both of us.

"Jesus, Tez. I love how much thought you've put into today, the diner, and here. I feel like one of those women from the many Netflix romcoms I watch."

I inch myself closer, my ego flattered. "Oh, yeah?"

Her gaze holds mine as I brush the back of my fingers across her cheek, then cup it in my palm. "And the guy always gets the girl," I rasp out.

I don't wait a second longer.

I consume her lips, kissing her hard and greedily. The world dissolves around me. She kisses me back, and it's like our first time all over again. No years gone by. No regrets of letting her go. We kiss like two people who want to climb inside each other and never surface again.

I drop a hand to her lower back and force her closer to me. I can feel everything she's feeling. It's in the gasps she makes, it's in the push of her lips, and it's in the slip of her tongue. It's all-consuming and it's erasing everything from both our pasts, giving us a second chance.