His hand cupped her jaw gently as his teeth scraped over her ear lobe. She gripped blindly at his clothes, untrimmed fingernails scraping over the fabric harshly. Her hand snaked up his back leisurely, feeling the slight movement of his muscles under his shirt, making her way up to his unruly hair and stroking it fondly. He was very tense.

Lips found the skin of her neck and kissed her lightly. Tina closed her eyes. The sensation was ticklish and loving at the same time, with a strong undercurrent of tension. She let herself pretend, for a moment, that he was hers. Though no matter how gentle he was with his ministrations, there was still the strong tension. The tension of physical attraction between them.

How did they get themselves into this position? Oh, yes. The heat of Rio was almost unbearable. It was humid in the way the air was thick with moisture and their skin slick with sweat. They'd gone into Newt's case to wind down, strip off some unneeded layers and relax in a habitat that wasn't so engulfing with heat. Newt had picked up some old rag, drenched it in cold water and held it against his forehead. Upon seeing the state she was in, sweating and in only a thin blouse and a skirt, he came very close to her (much closer than he really needed to) and pressed it to her burning skin. She didn't know what else to do except focus solely on not blushing like mad and giving away her current mental state. Somehow, she wasn't exactly sure how, Newt had touched his lips to her jaw line. She didn't reject him, maybe she encouraged him, the memory became hazy after he raised his hand to her jaw and cupped it, leaving her to lean into him. He was so warm, a masculine presence to her inner damsel.

Newt's teeth nipped carefully at the base of her neck, as if he were afraid of hurting her. Which, in her state of arousal, could never happen. Nothing he could do would hurt her. Tina swallowed roughly at her little realisation. Why did he affect her this much? Was she really so in love with him? This was so, so, horribly bad.

She wanted to, obviously she wanted so badly to kiss him back, loop her arms around him and never let go, proclaim her undying love… all that good stuff. But part of her. The stupid part. Was terrified of a real relationship. That meant commitment and settling down and oh god he gets to know me. The hand previously cupping her jaw tangled itself in her hair and pulled her head back, exposing more of her throat to his wandering lips. Real relationships were always quick to become messy, from her second-hand experience. With love and life merged into one, no couple stood a chance against the harsh and unforgiving realities of a real relationship. Tina wanted to – she wanted… what did she want? What was she – where was that train – the train of thought…? Oh, yes. The meaning of a – a…

"Newt."

His name escaped her in a heavy gasp as she tried to sort through the hurricane of possible next moves plaguing her brain. The suckling at the hollow of her throat was… sensational. It made her want to writhe away whilst simultaneously draw him in closer. Her body went for the latter, without her permission. Her betraying hands pulled him into her and she turned her head to finally place a kiss to his hair. He stopped then, his teeth pausing, her skin caught between them.

Newt lifted his head and locked eyes with her. Oh, oh. He was going to kiss her. Tina froze. She could only blink as he looked down at her lips. Everything suddenly became ten times hotter, and she was suddenly very aware of her arms, legs, hands, feet, breathing – anything she could focus on other than him. Newt's eyes fell closed and he leaned into her so they shared the same air. Their lips were only a hair apart, so dearly close. All she needed was one small movement, and she could live the dreams keeping her awake at night. He waited, ever the gentleman, as she breathed erratically. What was she doing? Why was she being so stupid? She blinked rapidly.

Fear was a funny thing. Sometimes it helped you fight, moved your wand quicker and the spells came easier to your tongue and reflexes were like a wild animal's, prey of a predator. Without fear, she probably wouldn't have made it this far, she'd have died long ago from some ridiculous mistake. But sometimes, it triggered your brain into something called a "fight or flight" response. In Tina's case, her body wanted to fly away as fast as possible even if her heart fought to stay.

She let go of him and whipped round abruptly, instantly missing his hold on her.

"Tina?" He said breathlessly, and the guilt sunk in. Her skin burned where his lips had travelled. He sounded so… sad. Sad was the best word for it, really.

"I –" Words, words. If she couldn't kiss him she could at least say something. "I don't want to – I need to –" Think things through? Yes, that was it. She needed to think long and hard about what she wanted before things got messy and shattered as quick as fine glass. "I need a moment."

And she left, with a damp neck and a heavy heart.

AN - Hmmm, that was interesting.

I haven't written anything for FB in over a year, but my other stuff seemed alright, so I decided to re-visit these two in a short excerpt.

This was more of an exercise if anything, I want to branch into more genres of writing and romance was on my to-do list (I actually wrote a romance one-shot of these two in 2018 but we don't talk about that lol). I'd like to add another chapter to this, and maybe even add a little smut *wink wink* if I feel brave enough.

Let me know how this works out and if I should scrap the whole writing romance idea all together haha.