Falling into you

Rhea and Kace have spent the entire day working together, moving between meetings, clients and work. By the end of the day, they are exhausted but relaxed around each other. There are shared jokes, teasing and lingering looks that neither openly acknowledges.

When work finishes, they decide to have drinks together at a bar.

One drink becomes several. As the evening continues, both become increasingly intoxicated. Their smart work clothes become slightly dishevelled, their conversation becomes more relaxed, and the familiar professional boundaries between mentor and colleague begin to blur.

Eventually, they leave the bar together and end up at a luxurious hotel.

Inside the hotel room, they continue drinking. Half-drunk wine glasses and partially empty bottles accumulate around the room, with a few pieces of clothing casually left behind.

They sit close together on the hotel bed, flushed and intoxicated, looking at each other. Kace moves closer and kisses Rhea. She isn’t surprised by his move. He has kissed her before, a while ago during another night out. The kiss becomes passionate, and they gradually move down onto the bed.

This time, Rhea decides to take the lead. The alcohol must be making her braver, fuelling the desire she has been building up for him and giving her the confidence to act on it. Kace is clearly aroused. Rhea’s heart is racing a million miles an hour. She’s fascinated and totally drawn to this beautiful man she’s been spending so much time with.

She has been feeling like an infatuated sixteen-year-old girl, surrounded by his attention and care over the past few months. Rhea continues kissing him while unbuttoning his half-done shirt. She has been dying to touch his slender body. She’s imagined this moment many times.

Unexpectedly, Kace catches her hand, hesitantly trying to stop her.

Rhea pauses, unable to understand why he is resisting.

For a moment, she simply looks at him.

Is it because of her age?

Is it her imperfect body after childbearing?

Is it because her divorce isn’t finalised?

Is it because she simply isn’t good enough for his taste? He is drop-dead gorgeous and much younger, after all.

The ex he misses so much — the woman whose name is tattooed across his entire back — was a model. Young, pretty and fit.

Who am I to compare?

Then another thought comes to her.

A flash.

Kace appearing beside her at work, almost as soon as she arrives.

Another.

The way his face lights up when he sees her, immediately falling into step beside her.

Another.

Kace following her from one meeting to the next, talking to her about anything and everything, as though being near her was the most natural thing in the world.

Another.

Her phone lighting up with another message from him.

Then another.

And another.

His thoughts. His plans. What he was doing. Where he was going.

Always Rhea.

Always there.

A memory of him approaching her with that almost puppy-like eagerness she has come to recognise — quietly confident, but unmistakably happy whenever he gets her attention.

Back in the hotel room, Rhea looks at him again.

Kace has been attached to her by the hip since he joined.

He is always there, wherever she looks.

He has been with her almost 24/7 since they met.

Her eyes remain fixed on him.

The contradiction is impossible to ignore.

Every day, he gravitates toward her.

Every day, he seeks her out.

Every day, he makes his way back to her.

And now, when she finally gives in to everything that has been building between them, he is the one holding her back.

Rhea remains close to him, watching his hesitation, trying to understand the contradiction between his behaviour toward her every day and his reluctance now.

The tension between them intensifies as Kace struggles between his reluctance and his attraction to her.

Rhea pauses, then lets go of his hand and continues, moving from kissing his chest down toward his abdomen. Kace reacts with a deep gasp, caught between his desire for her and his attempt to resist. Rhea continues, and his restraint gradually begins to give way beneath the intensity of the moment. Eventually, he unexpectedly loses control.

Rhea is briefly surprised, then slightly triumphant, as though his reaction has confirmed what she had suspected all along: he cannot resist her after all. He must have feelings for her too. She didn’t make the whole thing up in her little, busy, clouded head.

She moves back up toward him, and they eventually lie side by side on the bed, holding each other closely. Their closeness feels both familiar and charged, as though this moment has been building between them for a long time.