Episode 24: Come For You

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Episode 24: Come For You

The ride back home was tedious and felt like an eternal journey.

It wasn't much of a surprise that this was the case with the eruption going inside of the woman's chest.

It was over an hour's worth of travel back into the city, but crazily enough, Leslie didn't feel the need to sleep like last time nor did she force herself to.

She had a lot to think about during that time.

Like the way a particular man's eyes would totally consume her once they landed on her.

Her mind was on overdrive, busy conjuring up images of the way his pretty lips would part in surprise at her presence.

Her imagination went the extra mile of crafting his other features; such as his long, black hair she always craved to run her hands through and those icy blue eyes which never failed to have her frozen.

She already felt her fingers twitch with the feeling of a frosty sensation making its way up her hand.

It was an unsolved mystery whether it had something to do with the thought of him or how cold the place had gotten.

Her eyes took in the outside as she blew out a frigid breath.

The skies were dark with a lingering curtain of what was a rainy day.

Leslie still felt the heavy moisture in the air as she sped uptown and hailed a taxi.

It began to drizzle as she made her way to his address.

Her body felt on the brink of falling apart due to exhaustion but her heart was very much awake.

It had been incandescent after being lit with something contrastingly scorching.

With one hand to her chest, she hastily paid the driver as she ran upstairs after making it to the private apartment complex.

The guard greeted her and she offered him something between a grunt and a panicked squeak of not wanting to be dismissive amidst her hurry.

Finally making it to the front door, her chest was heaving and bones burning in protest of her marathon of activities. She felt her coat pocket vibrate with a text message.

Taking it as an opportunity to have a breather before knocking on the door before her, she took it out and looked down.

It was him.

How did it go?

She bit down onto her lips as her eyes raised to the door, wishing with every fibre of her being that he stuck to his bad habits and was home.

Open the door and find out.

All the air was knocked out of her as the door was swung open within the next couple seconds.

It was like time stopped.

Round, brown eyes slammed into surprised cerulean ones.

They darkened at the sight of her, but it was compensated for with the starry silvers around his irises as the realization dawned on him that she was actually here.

Not a figment of his imagination.

Leslie was actually standing before him in the flesh.

He hated how dramatically his body reacted, licked with a flame of odd excitement at seeing her.

It wasn't like they had been apart for months or years, it had literally just been a couple days, so why had it felt as torturous as a century's separation?

Christopher shook his head and lowered his gaze before she could read everything his heart was stupidly giving away in that moment.

It was only then he remembered that he had barely managed to put a shirt over his body properly as he dashed to open the door.

He had been too focused on getting to the woman who consumed his thoughts to the point of being unproductive all day.

All he could think about was whether she was doing okay. His mind consisted of everything about her; questions that were so invested it was on the brink of an obsession.

Was she nervous about her presentation? Has she gotten enough sleep? Did she eat? Did she end up stuttering? Did she not win first place?

His relief was like a fuse going out as he saw her standing in front of him now.

She was perfectly fine.

Though he started to reconsider that after taking in her appearance subsequent to fixing his own.

His blue eyes were soft as he slipped the material over his shoulders.

"You're here."

His words were understandably confused and clouded with a haze of something she hardly recognized.

"I had something to tell you," she panted, taking short breaths as she became less restless at seeing that she had made it to him.

"Isn't your convention supposed to end by eight thirty tonight? What are you already doing here?"

"It's important."

His eyes became conflicted as he saw that she was still fixed on whatever she wanted to say.

Leslie wasn't allowing him to have her become sidetracked and he knew she only did that only in two situations:

1) When she desperately wanted to say something before she lost the guts to say it anymore.

And

2) When she was seducing him into doing what she wanted.

Taking one look at her disheveled state, Christopher knew that this was much more important than a game of cat and mouse. His hand reached up to her moist skin with a purpose as he took a strand of dark hair and swept it from obstructing the view of her face.

Her features which were usually gentle became overturned with anxiety.

His thumb reached out and smoothed the folded skin above her forehead away. "Is it so urgent that you'd rather stand outside my door shaking from the rain than have me invite you in for a cup of tea?"

"Christopher," she sighed and for the first time in his life he became terrified of hearing his own name.

He knew what she was going to say before she had.

From a young age, he was scarily deceptive and had a knack for making hypotheses.

Maybe that was one of the biggest factors of his pull towards the woman before him–her unpredictable nature.

It always had him guessing, on his toes and eager to know if what he thought she would do would be right.

It never was.

That's why it was hard for the man to believe his prediction hit the bullseye this time around.

As if she could see the genuine fear in his eyes for what was about to come, Leslie took another route. "Yeah, I think you're right. Let me in first. It can wait."

"Are you sure? You seemed like you'd die if you didn't get it out." He looked at her, widening his eyes meaningfully.

For some reason, he'd grown rather inquisitive to know what she wanted to say to him.

"I think I'll live for a few more minutes," she attempted to joke, but it came out as a wince. Shaking it off quickly, Leslie moved towards the door.

His arm opened it wider on its own accord.

Leslie didn't notice how wet she was until her gaze caught the trail her boots made and heard the heavy flop sound as he hung up her coat.

Her body turned around and watched him warily, knowing how much of a clean freak he was.

He didn't say anything, only disappeared into the bathroom and came back with a towel.

She took it from him with a grateful smile.

"You could've asked me to pick you up if you were headed back early, you know?"

Shocked by his kind words, she stared at him wide eyed.

"You would've come for me? It's fairly far from here."

"No matter the distance, Leslie, I would've come for you."

She flushed.

With the clueless look on his face, she knew he hadn't meant it in the impressively lyrical and sensitive way in which it came out.

Nonetheless, it did wonders to her heart, daring it to soar out of her chest and have him become its new owner.

He probably saw all that and more in the flattered gaze she had on him.

His hand became jittery by his side before they pointed in the direction of the kitchen. "I'll put the kettle on."

Before she could get a word out, he was gone again.

She sighed and felt empty for a second before his head poked out and lit up the space once more.

"There are some spare clothes in the bathroom. Top right shelf. I...I bought them the other day you fell asleep here and had nothing to freshen up in before going to work. I kind of felt bad for having let you go like that. So I, um, made arrangements so that would never happen again if you were to stay over."

Her eyes stayed on him, not quite knowing what to say.

Did he just admit to buying me clothes for sleeping over?

Her mind was stuck in between doing a mental squeal and something much more lasting.

Risky...

But lasting.

"Not that I've planned on you staying overnight again or anything. It's completely up to your discretion. I know just because we have a special relationship that doesn't mean I get to take advantage of you."

She wanted to tell him that's exactly what it meant.

And that she wanted him to.

God, she wanted to beg him to.

Unaware of her feelings, he nodded as if they had come to some sort of agreement and went back into the kitchen.

She was left fending for herself as she went into the bathroom, trying not to let those emotions from before overpower her to do something stupid.

Stupider than rushing here for miles with her feelings ready to be shared only to end up tongue tied.

Leslie knew she was capable of doing something worse than that though.

There were many more direct and embarrassing scenarios that filled her head.

Like running into his arms and asking him to make her his in every way possible.

She was sure the raindrops had penetrated her skull and soaked her brain into nothingness because it wasn't fair to have this lack of restraint when it came to him.

It was even worse now that she had found herself in the privacy of his home.

God, help me, she beseeched miserably.

***

A/N:

We feel you, Les.

We do.

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insta: @writtenbyzan_]