“Do you really think of me as a sister?”
It was a dangerous question. There was every chance she wouldn’t like the answer. But dammit, something about this place made her believe in magic, and she deserved to give it one last shot. She owed it to herself.
No regrets.
A thousand emotions passed over Blake’s face. His hand trembled against hers. All the while, Farrah’s heart banged against her chest, desperate to reach something on the other side.
“No.” His hand remained entwined with hers.
The banging intensified. “What do you think of me?”
Blake was silent for so long she thought he didn’t hear her. She was debating whether to repeat the question or flee in mortification when he stepped closer.
“I think—” Blake’s voice turned rough. “You’re a smartass who’s too stubborn for your own good. I think you drive me crazier than any person ought to. And I think I might die if I can’t be with you.”
The air whooshed out of Farrah’s lungs. She had the moment-by-moment clarity of someone speeding down the road in a car without brakes. The road would lead to either the most terrifying or most amazing place she’d ever see.
There was only one way to find out.
Farrah grabbed Blake Ryan’s face and kissed him.
Their mouths explored each other, hungrily and desperately, as if they’d longed for each other their whole lives and were only now getting the chance to meet. Farrah moaned and tangled her hands in his hair, her entire body aching. Blake tasted like ice and fire, like love and danger, like an angel and the devil, and she couldn’t get enough. She wanted to drink up every last drop of him.
He pushed her against the railing and molded his body to hers until she didn’t know where she ended and he began. They poured everything they had into each other—every feeling, every thought, every memory, both good and bad. They left themselves open so the other could rush in and fill the space that had been empty for too long.
Time fell away, taking with it everything that happened before or would happen and leaving them with only this moment. The surrounding buildings crumbled. The wall collapsed, the trees disappeared, and the hills flattened out, retreating into nonexistence while they waited for the world to be born. Then, just like that, the world was there, bursting forth with such excitement it sped past everything. Past civilization, past nature, past the sun and moon and stars until it all fell quiet again.
Through it all, Blake and Farrah stood, unmoved by the creation and destruction around them. Here, at last, they found a place time couldn’t touch.
But in the end, the universe gets its way, and though they fought it until their lungs ran out of breath, they eventually had to ease apart.
They stared at each other.
Elation coursed through Farrah’s veins. It filled her up until she thought she might burst, so she did the only thing she could do: she laughed. The sound danced in the air and echoed back at her, causing her to laugh harder. Blake’s face broke into a grin. His
laughter joined hers, their harmony saying everything they couldn’t say in words.
“Let’s not go back,” Blake said. “Let’s stay a while longer.”
“Yes.” Farrah sank into his arms. “Let’s.”
They stared up at the sky. The stars beamed back, twinkling with joy.
Farrah had always equated the stars with love, which seemed as nebulous and out of reach as the diamonds in the sky. But as she stood there next to Blake, beneath the infinite skies of a foreign land, the stars felt a little closer.
Chapter Sixteen
One moment can change your life.
It can happen anywhere, anytime, and it usually happens when you least expect it.
For Blake, it happened on a little bridge in a little town halfway across the world from home.
The moment his lips touched Farrah’s, he was a goner. His excuses for why he shouldn’t get involved with anyone from FEA crumbled into dust, as did his aversion to virgins. In fact, jealousy streaked through him at the thought of Farrah sleeping with anyone else.
Farrah wasn’t like Lorna. She wasn’t like anyone he’d ever met before.
For the first time in his life Blake believed in the Hollywood romance and the butterflies and the fireworks, because he saw them. They were as bright and unexpected as the girl who entered his life like a meteor streaking through the night, illuminating the darkness and showing him what was possible if only he would believe in the stars.