Content warning: Romance
Or is it?
I would suggest sitting down for this chapter

*****

Zara blinked. "What?"

Adrian took a deep breath. He couldn't believe that all his emotional training had gone for a toss because of the woman in front of her. "Because I like you." He said in a calmer tone. "I have....for a while now."

The closet seemed too small suddenly even though the two of them were at a distance from each other. Zara wished that her side of the closet also had a chair because she had not been expecting this.

"What...."

"The day that we first met wasn't the first time I saw you. I came to the bar every day for a week....to see you." Zara was definitely sure that her ears were deceiving her. She had to be dreaming somehow. She wanted him to shut up but he continued to speak. "I had been there one day to watch out for someone from the Ferraras that was trespassing. I wanted to warn her. I was going to leave the building but I couldn't. I found myself stuck to my seat because I saw you.

"I came there for the next few days, trying to gather up the courage to talk to you. But I couldn't." He laughed shakily. "I felt like a school boy but I had never felt that way before. Your kindness, your purity....I was immediately drawn."

Zara shook her head, wanting to scream that he was lying. There was no way that she could have missed him. What was he even talking about?

Adrian took a step closer to her and seeing that she didn't move, he took another step. "When you told me that the men that had come there to kill you, I felt an emotion that I have learnt to keep under control." Anger. "I couldn't place why I was feeling that way. I thought at first that it was because you were a part of New York and since that comes under my division...." He shook his head. "But I was trying to convince myself because I was running from the truth. I went to interrogate them myself and got the answers.

"But I came every day, Zara." Hearing her name from him, Zara's heart melted. She wanted to scold herself for it but she was only human after all. "It took me an entire week to sit at the counter so that I could talk to you. I wanted to know more about you but I became scared."

Silence.

"Why?" She managed to get out.

Adrian assumed that he was asking her why he seeked her out again that night. "Because I had seen the way you saved the dog. I may have left the premises but I was completing my rounds that evening. When I saw you save that small creature, I became fascinated by you."

Zara's shoulders shook. He had seen her save Buddy. "Did you follow me?" She asked. "After that?"

He shook his head. "But I knew I had to meet you again."

Zara's mind was clear. She did not have many answers but one of them was answered and so, she slowly walked over to him, as slowly as her legs would allow her to do it. He kept her gaze set on her eyes and did not move when she stood right in front of him.

She kissed him.

She placed both her hands on either side of his face and pulled him into a kiss. What she had heard may have seemed like something she would have laughed at, but Adrian meant every word of it. It was what anyone would have wanted to hear from someone they too had feelings for.

Adrian's eyebrows shot up in shock when she kissed him. He had been expecting her to slap or punch him, but this was definitely a sweet surprise. His hands found her face and he kissed her back. It was a kiss full of passion, something that he had vowed not to let him feel because of what it may mean for the future for both of them.

He broke the kiss and stared at her, wanting to stop this but she was what he had been looking for. He kissed her more, making her walk backwards until her back hit the wall. He tasted her like he had never before because he wanted to know her. He wanted her to know him like he had never allowed people to before. 

She was his falling star....and he had been waiting for her.

He lifted her off the ground and when his hands reached for her calf, she wrapped her legs around his waist, not wanting to let him go either. He kissed her once again while she held his neck in a delicate hold.

He looked her directly in the eyes, trying to read her thoughts. "Tell me."

Zara cocked her head to one side, her lips twitching. She had to tell it to him out loud and so, she moved her face near his ear and kissed his cheek. "I like you too."

Adrian let out a shaky laugh. Oh, how he had been waiting to hear those words from someone that meant it after knowing who he was. He kissed her neck, making her inhale sharply. "Adrian...." Zara had never felt this shiver before and she had never wanted to, but Adrian knew what he was doing to unravel her.

He carried her to her bed and laid her down gently. She removed his tee over his head in between kisses. He bent down to kiss her again, softly at first. He cupped her face, never wanting to let go. Her hands wound up around his neck as she pulled him closer, destroying any form of distance that they had had all this while.

But that was it. Adrian pulled back and both of them looked at each other, devouring each other's presence. "We have only known each other for three months. I want to know more about you. I want...."

She broke his sentence with a kiss on the scar on his eyebrow. "All I hear is yap yap yap." She teased him, making them laugh. She rested her cheek against his bare shoulder and sighed. "How long?" She asked him, lifting her eyes to see him staring at her with a softness in his eyes that she had never seen before.

"Since the first day I met you."

But the next day?

The next day was going to change everything.

*****

I'm squealing like an idiot right now.
All the best for the next chapter
Which is my favourite one btw