Her laughter came suddenly, bright and disarming, filling the small space with warmth. But it wasn’t the sound that unsettled him—it was the way she leaned closer when it escaped her lips. She tilted toward him as though drawn by something magnetic, her shoulder brushing his arm, her hair falling forward to graze his cheek. He could feel the faint tremor of her body against his, as if the laughter rippled through her and into him. And then came the breath—soft, warm, brushing the edge of his ear in a way that felt too intimate to be innocent. She didn’t pull away right away. Her closeness lingered, her scent wrapping around him, her presence invading the careful space he had tried to keep.
He told himself it was an accident. She was only leaning closer because of the way they were sitting, because the room was crowded, because laughter sometimes brought people together. But the way her eyes flicked up at him as her breath still hovered near his ear told another story. It wasn’t clumsy at all. It was precise, deliberate. She wanted him to feel it, wanted him to notice how near she was. She shifted slightly, enough that her lips almost grazed his skin when she spoke again, her words low and teasing, coated in warmth that wasn’t only from her laughter. He froze, every nerve sharpened, every thought circling around the single dangerous fact: she knew exactly what she was doing.
She finally leaned back, but not before letting the moment stretch to the breaking point. The ghost of her breath remained on his ear, tingling, impossible to forget. She laughed again, softer now, as if satisfied with the effect she had left behind. He sat still, pretending nothing had happened, but his pulse betrayed him. She knew. She could see it in the way his jaw tightened, the way his eyes avoided hers too quickly. And she enjoyed it. Every time she leaned close, every time her laughter brushed against him, she fed the fire a little more, daring him to respond. She didn’t need to touch him more than that. Her laughter, her breath, her closeness—they were enough to make him imagine everything else she might one day allow.