Finding Mr. Write (Business of Love #5) - Ali Parker Page 0,48

the edge and proceeded to point out all the buildings he knew by name. He’d been obsessed with architecture and he always pointed out what made a building unique compared to all the ones around it.

I still saw New York City through his eyes, especially from way up here.

I slid my hands into my pockets and watched Briar out of the corner of my eye. “What do you think?”

She never tore her gaze from the view. “I think this is the most beautiful and frightening thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Frightening?”

I’d heard a lot of different adjectives used to describe the feeling and the view from up here, but frightening had never been one of them.

Briar nodded slowly. “There’s just so much.”

“So much what?”

“So much everything. Buildings, people, cars, things to buy, places to go, things to see. It’s… it’s a little overwhelming.”

I tried to see it how she was seeing it. To me, New York had only ever felt like home and possibilities. Sure, it was excessive. Hell, one would argue it was the capital city of excessive and unnecessary, but it was so much more than that. It was vibrant, strong. It was a survivor.

Just like so many of its people were.

Heavier rain drops began to fall, and dozens of people cleared off the observatory deck to retreat inside where it was warm and dry. Briar remained by the edge, staring out, her eyes reflecting the lights of the city as the sky darkened overhead.

“Do you ever wonder what everyone else is doing?” Briar asked. “Hundreds of thousands of lives are going on down there that we have no part of. What’s it like to be someone else? Who do they go home to? Who do they want to be? Who are they grieving for?”

I studied her like it was the first time I’d ever seen her. There was so much more to Briar than met the eye and what she’d shown me so far.

She turned slowly to look at me. “I’ve never felt so small before.”

I reached out and caressed her cheek. She leaned into the touch and closed her eyes. Her cheek was warm and soft, and I ached to let my thumb wander to her lips so I could trace her cupid’s bow.

“I don’t think you’re small,” I breathed.

I meant it. To me, Briar felt too expansive for words to define. She was everything and anything all at once, and the overwhelming feeling she had looking at the city matched the feeling I had in my chest when I looked at her.

She was not just a muse. There was so much more to how I felt about her than writing inspiration.

Walker, the bastard, had been right.

“I don’t think you’re small at all,” I said.

Briar let me step in close. Her lips curled in a smile and I indulged my desires by running my thumb along her full bottom lip. She didn’t pull away. Her cheeks turned a pretty rose shade and she reached up to place both hands flat against my chest.

Then she arched an eyebrow. “Are you calling me fat, Shakespeare?”

My mouth fell open in surprise. “That’s not how I meant it.”

“You said you didn’t think I was small. So what do you think I am?”

“I—wait, what?”

Briar’s other eyebrow arched and she stared expectantly at me. “So what am I then?”

Fuck. “I didn’t mean it like that. All I meant was to me, you’re so much more than just a tiny speck in the universe and—”

Briar threw her head back and laughed.

I stood there like an idiot trying to piece together what was so funny.

She slid her hands up my chest and neck to cup my cheeks. “I’m screwing with you, Wes. Now kiss me already. I can’t think of a better spot in this city to let you sweep me off my feet.”

Chapter 21

Briar

Wes grabbed the back of my neck and kissed me like the only oxygen he had access to was in my lungs. Rain drops kissed my cheeks and eyelids as the kiss deepened, and he leaned me backward with one hand on my lower back. I lost track of what was up and what was down. All I knew was this was the kind of kiss Wes wrote in his books.

I never imagined having a moment like this with anyone, let alone the W. Parker.

We broke apart when the rain picked up and started soaking through the shoulders of our coats. Wes wore a grin beneath his dampening hair, and he nodded