Chapter Thirty-Six
“Secret - Something kept hidden from others or known only to oneself or to a few.”
Piper
He wanted to know my secrets. I almost told him.
I almost told him everything. Lying out there in the Alaskan snow hadn’t been cold.
It was warm. We’d never been that close before.
Sure, I always felt a little pull between us, but tonight it seemed stronger.
I felt like I might get a glimpse of the man he seemed to hide.
I almost admitted my secrets. I thought about it.
But I knew in that moment I wouldn’t be able to stop at one.
They all would’ve come tumbling out of my mouth.
The way he looked at me through the dark…
I could feel his stare. And even though my hands were gloved, I swear I could feel the heat of his skin against mine.
For a moment, when he touched my cheek, I thought he might kiss me, lay his lips upon mine, and that the northern lights would’ve become just background to the show of colors and feelings swirling within me.
But something held him back. Just as something held me back.
I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but I wanted to find it. I wanted to erase it so the only thing between us was the beating of our hearts and the barrier of our skin.
I knew what held me back was the missing pieces of the puzzle that was Dex, but the more I got to know him, the harder it was to remember I was trying to piece him together. I was beginning not to care about the things I didn’t know. I was beginning to only think about the things I did know.
He said he felt as if he were competing with the man who died. That might have been true in the beginning, but now the tides were turning. What Dex didn’t seem to realize was that everything else was beginning to have to compete with him.
And he was winning.