Chapter Nine
Nora's P.O.V
My entire body still buzzed from the memory of Leo’s hands, his mouth, the heat of his breath against my skin. Sitting next to him had felt like being doused in gasoline and daring the universe to strike a match.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Focus. Cool off. Get water. Breathe.
Leo was there.
I didn’t hear him enter—but somehow, I knew the second he stepped into the kitchen. The air shifted, thickened, like it always did when he was close. My grip on the counter tightened.
I turned slowly, but kept my gaze fixed on the floor. I couldn’t look at him. Not now. Not with my pulse still racing and my mouth still aching to taste him again.
The silence between us pulsed like a heartbeat.
“This is wrong,” I whispered, barely able to speak around the weight in my chest.
Leo didn’t say anything right away.
Then, quietly—calm, steady, maddening—he said, “He doesn’t have to know.”
I shook my head, still staring at the floor. “That’s not the point.”
Leo stepped closer, not touching me, not crowding—just… there. His voice dropped lower. “Then what is?”
I looked up, finally, and that was a mistake.
His eyes were shadowed but burning, fixed on me like I was the only thing holding him in place.
“The point,” I said, voice cracking, “is I can’t sit there and pretend I don’t feel anything. I can’t pretend that nothing happened. That I’m not thinking about it. About you.”
Leo’s jaw tightened, just a flicker. He stepped closer.
“And what if I’m thinking about you, too?”
I swallowed hard, chest tight. “Then we’re both in trouble.”
“My brother can’t know about this yet,” I said, the words falling out in a rush. I looked at Leo, then gestured vaguely between us, my hand trembling slightly.
“We don’t even know what this is.”
His eyes stayed locked on mine, unreadable.
“He’s going to be so mad at us,” I went on, voice barely holding together. “Not annoyed. Not confused. Mad. And I get it. You’re his best friend. I’m his sister. This will feel like a betrayal to him.”
Leo stepped closer, silent, but his presence filled every inch of space between us.
I crossed my arms tightly. “We need to tell him. Eventually. But… not now. Not yet. I don’t want to tell him too soon.”
Leo’s jaw tensed, but he nodded once. “Okay.”
I blinked. “Okay?”
He stepped in closer, his voice low but firm. “We take our time. Figure it out. And when we do… we tell him. Together.”
My heart gave a hard, traitorous thump.
I searched his face. “You’re not scared he’ll hate you?”
“I’m more scared of walking away from this before I even get the chance to know what it could be.”
I stood there frozen, the kitchen suddenly too small, too still.
Leo’s eyes didn’t waver. “I’m not going to rush you. But I’m not going to pretend this isn’t real either.”
And just like that, it wasn’t the heat or the secret or the guilt that overwhelmed me—it was the quiet certainty in his voice.
“But how do we do this?” I whispered, the words barely making it past the lump in my throat. “He doesn’t leave for college until the end of the month. That’s three weeks of all of us still together. Sneaking around always ends badly, Leo. People always get caught.”
He didn’t flinch. Didn’t back away. Just stood there, like his presence alone could hold me steady.
“I know,” he said quietly.
“So, what, we avoid each other? Pretend there’s nothing going on? What happens when he walks into a room and you’re looking at me like I’m the only thing keeping you sane?”
Leo’s lips curved slightly, like he couldn’t deny it—because it was true.
“We’ll be careful,” he said. “We won’t lie to him, not really—we just… don’t say it yet. Not until we know what this actually means.”
I exhaled hard and looked away, back toward the hallway, where the sound of the movie still played faintly.
“He’s going to know something’s up.”
Leo stepped in closer, just enough for his voice to wrap around me. “Then we be smart. We don’t sneak around to hide—we just protect it. Give it a chance to become something real before we hand it to someone else to judge.”
My breath caught. He made it sound simple. Like we were building something fragile, worth guarding. Like this wasn’t just about fear—it was about preserving whatever was starting between us.
I turned to him again, and he was watching me with that calm intensity that always unraveled me.
“I don’t want to lie to him,” I said softly.
“You’re not,” Leo said. “You’re just not ready.”
I nodded slowly. And for the first time since I’d stepped into the kitchen, I felt my pulse slow, just a little.
“Okay,” I said.
He didn’t smile, not fully. But something in him relaxed.
“Well,” I murmured, dragging my sleeve over my wrist, trying to collect myself. “We better get back to the movie before he suspects something.”
I turned toward the fridge, stepping away from the weight of Leo’s stare.
I reached for the fridge handle, but before I could even touch it, his voice came—low, rough, final.
“Not before this.”
I barely had time to turn before he was there.
His hand slid around my waist, the other cupping the back of my neck, and then his mouth was on mine.
The kiss wasn’t soft.
It was heat and hunger and restraint stretched thin—like he’d held back every second in that den and couldn’t anymore.
My breath caught, hands curling into his shirt like instinct. The fridge door stayed closed. Everything else faded.
He kissed me like he wanted this to brand.
Like if we were going to pretend in front of everyone else, he needed this first—something that was just ours.
When he finally pulled back, barely an inch between us, his forehead touched mine.
“Now we can go back,” he whispered, breath hot against my lips.
I exhaled shakily, heart pounding against my ribs like it wanted to claw its way to him.
I turned, slowly, legs still unsteady, and reached for the fridge.
“I’m blaming this kiss if I give Nick diet Coke instead of regular.”
Leo smirked behind me. “Worth it.”
Leo headed back before me, slipping out of the kitchen without another word—just one last look that lingered long after he was gone.
I stayed behind, giving it a few minutes. Enough to breathe. Enough to make sure I wouldn’t walk back in there looking like I’d just been kissed breathless against the fridge.
Once my heartbeat had calmed to something semi-human, I grabbed Nick’s soda, took a sip of my water, and made my way back to the den like nothing had happened.
The lights were even lower now, the movie casting flickers of color across the room.
Leo was back in his spot on the far end of the couch, cool and collected like he hadn’t just turned my entire world inside out five minutes ago.