Renee Ahdieh

“You have a beautiful laugh. Like the promise of tomorrow

When he yanked her down a small side alleyway, she pulled him back.
“Do you even know where you’re going?” she demanded.
“For once in your life, stop talking and listen.”
“How dare—”
He wrapped his right arm around her and pressed their bodies together in between a shadowed alcove. Then he shoved his index finger onto her lips.
Shahrzad listened as their pursuers ran past the alleyway, still shouting and carrying on in a drunken haze. When the sounds faded away, he removed his finger from her lips.
But it was too late.
Because Shahrzad could feel his heart beating faster.
Just like hers.

You were saying?” He was so close, his words were more breath than sound.
“How—how dare you say that to me?” she whispered.
His eyes glittered with something akin to amusement.
“How dare I imply you caused this mess?”
“Me? This is not my fault! This is your fault!”
“Mine?”
“You and your temper, Khalid!”
“No. You and your mouth, Shazi.”
“Wrong, you wretched lout!”
“See? That mouth.” He reached up and grazed his thumb across her lips. “That—magnificent mouth.”
Her traitor heart thudded against his, and when she peered up at him through her eyelashes, his hand at the small of her back pulled her impossibly closer.