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“I make no promises.”
With renewed determination, I pressed on the accelerator button at the start of the next race. As expected, Neil’s car zoomed ahead while I struggled to even stay on course. My tongue poked out in concentration as I wrestled with the controls.
On the winding coastal route, I misjudged a turn and crashed headfirst into a guardrail. “Ugh!”
Neil bit back a smile. “You’re getting better, though. Look, you just passed two cars.”
“By pure luck,” I grumbled, though I did feel a glimmer of pride.
The final track was set in a busy city with tricky shortcuts. Vehicles careened and smashed around me, but I managed to avoid any collisions through cautious driving. I was so focused I didn’t even realise it was the last lap when I crossed the finish line.
“Melia,” Neil said.
I almost dropped the controller. What did he just say? Melia?
I recalled him using that name for me once before. He had groaned it in his sleep in my hotel room in Singapore.
“Melia,” he repeated.
Now I knew it was intended and not a slip of the tongue. So, was this a new pet name he had for me?
“Look at your placing,” he said.
“Hmm?” I glanced at the screen and saw my name in fifth place out of nine.
I gasped in astonishment, then I threw up my arms. “Hooray! I didn’t come last!”
“Congratulations.”
I did a little victory dance in my seat, much to his amusement.
Meanwhile, a box popped up on the screen saying my controller had a low battery.
“Looks like we’ll have to stop there,” Neil said. He checked his watch. “Anyway, it’s getting late.”
“Yeah. It’s probably time I should head home.”
I wanted him to protest, but he did not. I grabbed my bag from beside the couch and stood up.
Neil started gathering the plates and pizza boxes. As I rummaged through my bag for my phone, I realised it wasn’t there. “Um, have you seen my phone anywhere?”
Neil stopped what he was doing and glanced around. “No—” His eyes landed on a dark object wedged between the couch cushions. “Is that it?”
We both leaned in to grasp it at the same time. Our hands collided, and we froze, faces inches apart. Time seemed to stop as we hovered in tense proximity. Neil was close enough that I could see flecks of amber in his dark eyes and feel his warm breath fan across my cheek. All of my nerve endings were alive from his knee brushing mine, his fingers still pressing against my hand. My gaze slid from his eyes to his lips, and I saw his throat bob as he swallowed.
In that suspended moment, I knew nothing would happen unless I made the first move. I steeled myself. I closed in and pressed my lips to his.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Neil’s lips parted ever so slightly beneath mine… Then he clamped them shut. He grabbed my shoulders and pushed me away. “Milly,” he rasped. “We shouldn’t.”
He dropped his hands like I had burned him, and his jaw clenched and unclenched as if he were cycling through conflicting thoughts and emotions.
My face broke out in a flush of heat. How could I have misread the signs so badly? “I’m sorry, I?—”
No excuse came to mind. I had to get out of there. I grabbed my things and charged towards the exit.
“Milly, wait!” Neil called after me. “Can we talk about this?”
