Office Hours

28 | the a c c e p t a n c e

| C A D E N |

     BEFORE THE CAR PARKED, Caden flew out. He ran over to Zoya and held her face in his hands. He used the pad of his thumb to rub small circles on her cheeks, looking her over in worry.

"I'm fine," Zoya said, chuckling as she laid her hand on his.

"You sure?" Caden asked. Her tone had displaced him. She'd never asked him to get her before, especially somewhere so far out of town. He was beyond worried that something bad happened to her. She looked fine, but the unease was still rooted deeply inside him.

Zoya nodded with a smile. "Thanks for coming for me."

He nodded and took her hand then led her to the car. He rubbed small circles on her soft skin, not only to comfort her, but also himself.

When they arrived at Wisriveria, she took them to the courtyard and put on a movie he couldn't focus on. Zoya kept insisting she was fine, but he knew she was lying.

Zoya Brown was too easy for him to read.

"I can feel you worrying," Zoya joked.

"I am."

She sighed and looked up at him. Her eyes roamed his face before she did something he thought he would've been the first to do. . .

Zoya kissed him.

His breath hitched and he forgot how to breathe.

He was tempted to pinch himself, just to prove this wasn't another one of his dreams. From the tingles on his skin and the feel of her plump lips moving against his, he knew this was reality. A long awaited reality that felt too good to be true.

Zoya's kissing me.

Feeling her pull away, maybe from hurt that he didn't kiss her back, Caden grabbed the back of her neck and kissed her harder.

Their kiss wasn't slow nor rushed, but it was the epitome of tantalizing. If there was ever to be something Caden would label as perfect, it would be this moment with her.

Zoya.

The girl that plagued his mind day in and day out since he met her months ago. The girl who was always so close yet so far out of reach.

He deepened the kiss, slightly tightening his grip around her neck and using his thumb to rub her nape. She smiled against his lips and leaned into him more. Caden took that as a sign that she was enjoying this intimacy as much as he was, and it made his feelings for her intensify.

They kissed until they couldn't hold their breaths anymore. When he unwillingly broke away and rested his forehead on hers, Caden was as breathless as Zoya.

She looked even prettier with her kissed swollen lips stretched into a smile and her brown eyes a darker shade. All his prior worry faded away as he got lost in the depth of her beauty.

"You have no idea how long I wanted to kiss you," Caden confessed then mentally cursed himself. He didn't want to complicate their friendship and he was doing exactly that.

"Me too," Zoya agreed. "Kiss me aga-"

Caden took control of her mouth and claimed it as his.

Her lips tasted better than they did the first time. The bigger part of him that wanted to keep things platonic kept telling him to pull away but he ignored it completely.