Chapter 136 Final Moments In the Clearing Part 3

As the slow ballad progressed, Jack suddenly found himself eye to eye with Rose, her golden hazel eyes looking at him in a way that made his face flush. This close to her, he could feel the heat radiating off her hips through his gloves, and her hands even through his layers of clothes and armor, and his pulse pounded in his ears as the two of them moved gently to the music.

Seeing his redness and the stiffness of his movements, Rose's expression shifted a little as concern crept into her eyes.

"Are you okay?" She asked softly, probing his gaze with her own.

"Oh, yes, this is more than fine." He said gently, with a warm smile. Internally, he was screaming, but for some reason separating his countenance from the fact that he felt like he was about to have an excitement-induced heart attack was a lot easier than he remembered it being. Maybe it was his Persona increase... but wouldn't Composure be what made it easier to remain calm with his emotions? Or was Composure internal while Persona was external expression? He had no idea. The Terminal, despite all the information it'd given him, hadn't really been clear on that.

Rose didn't look like she fully believed him, her brows furrowed in a quizzical glance.

Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

"Are you sure? You look uncomfortable..." She said, then looked to her hands resting on his shoulders. "I'm not burning you, am I?"

"No, no, not at all. I'm just... a little nervous to be dancing with you, honestly. So I feel a little awkward." He said, shrugging.

She smiled at him, and raised an eyebrow.

"There's no reason to feel awkward, Jack. I asked you to dance with me because I wanted you to dance with me." She said.

"I'm not sure why you want to. I'm not really a very good dancer." He said sheepishly. "Not as good as you, anyways."

"I didn't ask you to dance with me because of your dancing skills, Mister Eames! I asked you to dance with me because I wanted to have fun with you! Because you're you and I want..." She trailed off all of a sudden, and averted her eyes. Was he losing his mind, or was she blushing? She cleared her throat, and her tone shifted from soft to assertive.

"We're heading into somewhere dangerous, and I'm afraid something will happen to one of us, and I want to be as close as possible to you while I can... you know... in case something..." She trailed off again, seemingly unable to bring herself to finish what she was trying to say. After another pause, she continued on, softly enough that he had to lean in closer to hear what she was saying.

"I just.. really care a lot about you, okay? We've been through a lot this past week, and I was scared to death I, er, we were going to lose you after you got stabbed. I was really worried.... And before we head into another situation where you could die, I just want to have a moment with you where I'm not worried about what has happened, or what is going to happen, and just be close to you, alright?" She finally managed to get out, seeming incredibly flustered about what she was saying.

Jack could feel his face flushing even harder. She looked directly into his eyes again, and for the second time in only a couple of days, saw tears welling up in Rose's eyes.

"So please," She said "please just dance with me right now. Please."