Both Hez and the museum curator turned wide eyes toward me, and I felt heat creep up my cheeks in embarrassment.
“Kris, would you excuse us please?” Hez asked, turning back to the curator.
“You cannot be alone with ‘ze trains,” Kris replied, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at Hez. “You ‘ave asked me to open and now you ask me to leave?”
“You’re right,” Hez agreed, raising his hands defensively. “Thank you very much for giving us the private tour. We will leave and let you get on with your Sunday.”
Hez took my arm and steered me back through the museum, with Kris hot on our heels as if we would dare to touch his trains on our way out the door.
“Well now you’ve done it,” Hez muttered. “Kris probably won’t let me come back.”
I knew he was teasing me, but I was still so embarrassed about shouting at him that I just kept my head down and walked quickly until we exited and reached the sidewalk.
“So,” Hez said brightly, grinning when I finally looked up at him again. “You were saying?”
“How can you just pretend like that conversation last night didn’t even happen?” I asked him.
“Because I thought you wanted me to,” he said. “You didn’t bring it up, and I already felt bad for making you uncomfortable, so I thought we were going to just forget about it.”
“I don’t want to forget about it,” I admitted.
“Okay,” he said. “So let’s talk about it.”
“Well, I don’t want to do that, either.”
“Hannah, baby, you’ve got to work with me here,” he pleaded, clearly trying not to laugh at me.
“I want to stay.” God, I hadn’t meant to say that out loud. And the way Hez’s face lit up when I did just about broke my heart. “But I can’t. You know that I can’t.”
“I don’t know that,” he insisted, stepping forward and taking my hands in his. “I can buy you a new ticket home any time you want to go.”
“It’s not just about me,” I said. “I have family waiting for me. I have a job. I have a cactus.”
“What’s his name?”
“Derek.” I blinked. “How did you know it had a name?”
“You seem like the kind of girl who names her plants,” he said with a grin. “Which is crazy that I know that. Because even though I just met you it feels like…”
“Like we’ve known each other forever?” I suggested.
“Yes!” He squeezed my hands and stepped even closer, the heat from his body radiating over mine. “It’s crazy, but Hannah, this is something. And I know you feel it, too.”
“I do,” I admitted. “How could I not? You show up out of nowhere and literally rescue me from the streets of Germany. Everything conspired to bring you into my life. I’m not the kind of girl who believes in signs—”
“Yes you are,” he interrupted.
“Okay fine! Yes, I am.” I blew out a sigh. “Stop doing that.”
“Doing what?” he asked, his face lowering toward mine.
“Being adorable,” I whispered.
He paused, as if to give me time to push him away, but I couldn’t. I was transfixed by him, the scent of his aftershave, the warmth of his skin, the feel of his lips brushing over mine.
And then he kissed me. Like a big, romantic movie scene kiss right there in the middle of the snowy streets in Hamburg. His mouth moved firmly but gently over mine, his tongue slowly sliding along the seam of my lips until I parted them for him and suddenly his flavor exploded across my taste buds, and I whimpered as my body seemed to catch fire beneath my clothes.
For just a moment, I allowed myself to be swept away by the torrent of emotions wracking my heart and my mind. This was what I’d been waiting for all these years. This was why there could never have been anyone else for me. Hez was mine and I was his.