Page 56 of Gatsby's Starlet
He pulled back slowly, his forehead brushing mine, and I kept my eyes on his because I didn’t trust myself to look away, didn’t trust what might come back if I did.
“Can you feel it?” he asked again, quieter now, and I didn’t need to ask what he meant.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
He studied me for a second longer, like he wasn’t convinced, and I held his gaze, willing him to let it go, to not ask anything else, to not see what I was trying so hard to keep buried.
Finally, he did. “I’ll call you tomorrow,” he said, stepping back.
“Tomorrow,” I echoed.
I turned to the door, unlocking it with hands that felt steadier than they should have, stepping inside and closing it behind me, listening to the soft click as it shut, sealing the night, and him, on the other side.
For a moment, I just stood there, breathing, letting the feel of him linger against my skin, letting it settle into something I could hold onto, something real enough to quiet everything else still circling in my head.
And then something shifted.
At first it was so slight I almost missed it, just a thin, unfamiliar edge slipping into the quiet, like the air had changed without warning, like the space around me had tightened in a way I couldn’t see but could suddenly feel pressing in all the same.
I didn’t move. Didn’t even breathe right. Because the silence, what had felt calm just seconds ago, wasn’t calm anymore. It was too complete. Too still. The kind of stillness that doesn’t just sit there, but listens.
My fingers curled slightly at my sides as my chest tightened, my body catching up before my thoughts did, instinct kicking in somewhere deep and quiet, telling me something was off even if I couldn’t say what, even if everything looked exactly the same, the door closed, the room untouched, nothing out of place, but it didn’t feel the same.
The longer I stood there, the more that earlier warmth, the lingering trace of him, of the night, of everything that had felt right, started to thin at the edges, replaced by something colder.
Something watching.
Something waiting.
And I had the sudden, unmistakable sense that I wasn’t alone anymore. “Hello?” I called softly.
No answer.
I stepped further inside, setting my purse down slowly, my eyes adjusting to the dim light, and then I saw him.
Kane.
Sitting on my couch like he belonged there, one arm stretched along the back, his ankle resting over his knee,completely at ease in a space that wasn’t his, like he’d been waiting long enough to get comfortable.
My breath caught so hard it hurt, my body locking before my mind could catch up, every thought scattering at once until all I could hear was the sound of my own heartbeat, loud and uneven in my ears.
“What—” I tried, but the word broke halfway out.
He smiled, slow and patient, like this moment had already played out in his head and ended exactly the way he wanted it to. “Took you long enough,” he said, his voice calm, almost angry. “I was startin’ to think you weren’t comin’ inside tonight.”
My fingers curled into empty air at my sides, my skin going cold even as my pulse raced. “How did you get in here?” I asked, my voice thinner than I wanted it to be.
He shrugged, like it didn’t matter. “Wasn’t that hard,” he said. “You should really think about better locks.”
My stomach dropped. Not because of the words, but because of how easily he said them. Like this had never been a question of if.
Every instinct in my body screamed to run, to turn around, to get out of the house, but my feet stayed planted where they were, my back still too close to the door, like if I moved too fast, it would set something off.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, my voice steadier than I felt, even as my pulse pounded hard enough to make my hands shake.
Kane didn’t answer right away, he just watched me like he was taking his time with it, like time itself belonged to him and he had all the damn time in the world to waste.
Then he leaned back slightly, stretching his arm along the back of the couch again, settling in like this was just another night, like he hadn’t just walked into my life uninvited and made himself comfortable.
