Chapter Six Heat in the Storm
286 Words
The rain hadn’t let up. It sluiced down the alley walls in silver sheets, soaking Leila’s hair, plastering her clothes to her skin.
Nico caught her wrist and pulled her beneath a rusted fire escape, a narrow pocket of shelter.
His breathing was rough from the run, his face streaked with rain and the faint smear of dried blood.
Lightning flickered, throwing sharp light across the angles of his jaw.
“You should be somewhere safe,” he murmured.
“You dragged me into this,” she shot back, chest rising and falling. “So tell me why I should walk away now.”
The storm swallowed their words, but the space between them hummed.
Every heartbeat felt louder than the rain.
Nico’s hand slid from her wrist to the small of her back not a pull, just a steady pressure, as if he needed proof she was real.
“I can protect you,” he said, voice low and raw. “But it means running. Tonight. With me.”
Leila searched his eyes, grey fire in the shadows.
“You think I’m afraid of running?”
A faint, dangerous smile. “I think you’re braver than you know.”
Thunder cracked overhead.
For a breathless moment neither of them moved, the air thick with rain and unspoken things.
Leila could feel the heat of him despite the cold night, every inch of space charged, a silent dare hanging between them.
Finally she whispered, “Then stop talking and show me where we go.”
Nico exhaled, a sound halfway between relief and surrender.
His hand lingered at her back as he led her out into the storm, the city lights shimmering like molten glass ahead.
- Writer
