If We Ever Meet Again - Ana Huang Page 0,39

her expression. “I’m guessing that’s not the answer you were looking for.”

“You don’t have personal ties to China, and you didn’t study Chinese. Why’d you choose Shanghai? Not saying you have to have those things to be here,” she added. “I’m just curious. Most people prefer to go to Europe or Australia. China is too…foreign for them.”

“It’s going to sound stupid.”

“Try me.”

Blake’s cheeks tinged pink. “I watched Skyfall,” he admitted.

Farrah’s laughter pealed through the air. “That is a great scene,” she agreed, remembering Bond’s fight with an assassin at the top of a Shanghai skyscraper.

“One of the best choreographed scenes in Bond history, if you ask me.” Blake joined in Farrah’s mirth. “I know someone who chose their study abroad destination by closing their eyes and pointing to a map, so it could’ve been worse.”

“Where’d they end up?”

Blake’s grin widened. “Moscow. In December.”

She cracked up again. “And they went through with it?”

“Yep. Fortunately for them, it was only a three-week program.” Blake moved closer. “What about you? Why Shanghai?”

“I wanted to see this place for myself. My mom’s always talking about China, but I’d never been.” Farrah traced her initials with her finger on the railing. “I almost didn’t choose Shanghai. I studied Mandarin to make my mom happy. I went against her wishes and majored in interior design instead of engineering or whatever, so I thought it would be a good compromise. It worked, kind of. She still gives me shit for not learning Mandarin sooner. Apparently, I wasted my high school years on French.”

“Still better than me. I only speak English.”

“And some Mandarin,” Farrah corrected him. “I’ve forgotten most of my French, so she may have a point. I was going to brush up on it in Paris. But when it came time to choose my study abroad location…I don’t know. I meant to click Paris but somehow clicked Shanghai. And here I am.” She flashed a lopsided smile. “In some ways, I chose it with even less thought than you.”

“Hey!” Blake pretended to take offense. “What do you mean less thought? I put a lot of effort into the decision-making process.”

She patted his hand. “Sure you did.”

To her surprise, Blake wrapped his fingers around hers. The warmth from his skin heated her from head to toe. “Either way, I’m glad you’re here.”

Farrah’s breath caught in her throat. Blake was so close she could see every detail of his face—the dark lashes, the cheekbones that cut through the night like knives, the ice-blue eyes darkening to the color of sapphires. She saw him clearer than she’d seen anyone in her life.

“Blake.” His name was a whisper in the night.

His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Yes?”

“Do you really think of me as a sister?”

It was a dangerous question. There was every chance she wouldn’t like the answer. But dammit, something about this place made her believe in magic, and she deserved to give it one last shot. She owed it to herself.

No regrets.

A thousand emotions passed over Blake’s face. His hand trembled against hers. All the while, Farrah’s heart banged against her chest, desperate to reach something on the other side.

“No.” His hand remained entwined with hers.

The banging intensified. “What do you think of me?”

Blake was silent for so long she thought he didn’t hear her. She was debating whether to repeat the question or flee in mortification when he stepped closer.

“I think—” Blake’s voice turned rough. “You’re a smartass who’s too stubborn for your own good. I think you drive me crazier than any person ought to. And I think I might die if I can’t be with you.”

The air whooshed out of Farrah’s lungs. She had the moment-by-moment clarity of someone speeding down the road in a car without brakes. The road would lead to either the most terrifying or most amazing place she’d ever see.

There was only one way to find out.

Farrah grabbed Blake Ryan’s face and kissed him.

Their mouths explored each other, hungrily and desperately, as if they’d longed for each other their whole lives and were only now getting the chance to meet. Farrah moaned and tangled her hands in his hair, her entire body aching. Blake tasted like ice and fire, like love and danger, like an angel and the devil, and she couldn’t get enough. She wanted to drink up every last drop of him.

He pushed her against the railing and molded his body to hers until she didn’t know where she ended and he began. They poured everything they had into each other—every