Chapter 5

The salt air had turned thick, heavy with the scent of fried dough and the briny tang of the ocean, but all I could taste was him. The carnival lights were beginning to flicker on as the sun dipped below the horizon, casting long, amber shadows across the boardwalk planks. We had escaped the crush of the crowd, slipping away from the shrieking children and the blaring calliope music into the dimly lit storage area beneath the main pier. It was a semi-private nook, cluttered with wooden crates and old fishing nets, but the intimacy of the space felt electric, charged with a tension that had been building since the moment he first called me *baby girl* under the ferris wheel. My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic bird trapped in a cage of bone. He stood there, towering over me, his silhouette sharp against the dying light. He hadn’t let go of my hand since we left the game stalls, and now, his grip was firm, possessive, pulling me closer until there was no space left between us. I could feel the heat radiating off his body, a solid, grounding warmth that made my knees weak. He looked