Page 29 of So Close to You
The exchange of glances lasts barely two seconds, but it’s enough for Nerissa to feel heat beginning to spread through her body.
The evening continues around them for nearly another hour, filled with exchanged looks, carefully maintained distances, and professional remarks delivered with a tension so palpable it begins to feel obscene.
Nerissa catches herself observing everything: the glass of wine Seraphina holds between her fingers, the way she breathes, how she moistens her lips as she speaks.
Her entire body remembers Seraphina.
And that ends up becoming unbearable.
That’s why, when Seraphina discreetly slips out of the main room, it takes Nerissa exactly fifteen seconds to follow her.
She finds her in one of the private corridors leading to the hotel’s side terrace. The area is nearly deserted, and the glass door leading outside stands slightly ajar, letting in the cool night air.
Seraphina turns at the sound of her footsteps, and she can’t help but smile.
“You shouldn’t have followed me,” Seraphina whispers, though her eyes say exactly the opposite. “I thought you wanted nothing to do with me.”
“I did, until you wouldn’t stop looking at me like that in front of everyone,” Nerissa replies, stepping toward her.
Seraphina’s breathing quickens.
Before she can say anything else, the surgeon pins her gently against the wallpapered wall of the hallway, cupping her jaw in one hand.
The atmosphere changes instantly, becoming electric.
Seraphina’s back presses softly against the wall as a quiet sound escapes her lips.
“Nerissa…” she begins.
But the surgeon wants no more words.
She’s exhausted from arguments, from accusations that change absolutely nothing.
Nerissa brings her mouth close to Seraphina’s without quite kissing her.
“I hate how you make me feel,” she confesses, and the words come out broken, raw, and painfully honest.
Seraphina looks at her with eyes darkened by longing and pulls her closer with urgent fingers at the back of her neck.
“Kiss me and shut up.”
The kiss explodes between them with fierce intensity.
Nerissa kisses her as if she wants to punish her and save herself at the same time.
Her fingers tighten at Seraphina’s waist while Seraphina responds desperately, parting her lips and clutching at her jacket as though afraid of falling.
Everything around them disappears.
All that remains is the warmth of her mouth and that devastating sensation of coming home while plunging into the void at the same time.
Seraphina trembles against her as Nerissa presses her closer to the wall.
For a few terrible seconds, neither of them remembers how to stop.
Eventually, they pull apart, breathless, their lips swollen and their breaths mingling.
Seraphina rests her forehead against Nerissa’s, and it doesn’t take long before she looks at her with a wicked smile.
