Chapter 181: More Than Friends
Their lashes were close enough to brush.
Elias could see the shift in Giselle's eyes with painful clarity, the small ripple under all that ice. She had to be able to see his, too. The warmth between them kept rising inside the hug, slow and dangerous, making the silence feel less like comfort and more like a line neither of them had agreed to cross.
Maybe both of them noticed.
Neither of them moved.
Neither of them looked away.
It was only a hug between Besties. What was strange about that?
More than friends, less than lovers. People lived in that hazy space all the time. That was the safest, prettiest lie in the world.
Whoever looked away first would be admitting there was something wrong.
In the end, Giselle broke first.
Elias's eyes had gone too soft, too wet, too shamelessly inviting, like they were one breath away from melting. Giselle's voice came out low. "It's cold out here. Let's go inside."
