Safe and Sound (Twist of Fate 2)

“Oh, no. I couldn’t. You take it, Aiden,” he said. “I’m okay standing.”

When he wouldn’t let me insist, I plopped on the stool and pulled him onto my lap. My mouth brushed against his ear as he turned to me in surprise. I murmured, “Much better,” before he had a chance to object. Despite the pink flush that came up on his skin, he stayed and settled onto my lap.

We perused the menu together, deciding to share a molten lava cake and order Irish coffees to go with it. Ash fell back into easy banter with me as the energy of the dessert crowd pulsed around us. When the chocolate monstrosity came, we had to share the spoon and take turns tasting the domed treat.

“You have some chocolate on your lip,” Ash said, pointing toward the corner of my mouth.

I deliberately reached out the tip of my tongue to the other side. “Did I get it?”

I didn’t miss how his breath hitched up. “No, other side,” he murmured, moving his pointer finger closer to my lower lip.

This time I took my time moving my tongue to the proper side but curving it up toward my top lip. “Now?”

His eyes were stuck on my mouth and I could practically see the wheels in his head turning. I willed him to act on his desire, but when he lifted his eyes to mine, he blushed and then grabbed a napkin to wipe off the spot. As he leaned his body weight farther into my chest to concentrate on what he was doing, I wrapped my arms around him and leaned forward for a kiss.

It was just a small thing— quick and chaste to celebrate the joy of feeling happy and close to him there in that moment, but once I felt the surprised puff of air escape his soft lips, I wanted more. I pulled back and studied him for a beat, hoping like hell I hadn’t gone too far. His eyes were dazed and his brows were furrowed, but his lips were plumped out as if he wanted more. I leaned in slowly this time, making sure he had plenty of time to pull away if he wanted to, but he didn’t.

My mouth landed on his softly, nibbling just slightly as he sighed and relaxed into me. His hands settled on my shoulders and I felt the brush of one of his thumbs against the sensitive skin of my neck. His lips were tentative but eager, pressing back into mine without really opening or deepening the kiss in any way. I forced myself to pull away, nuzzling my nose into his neck for a brief second before reaching for the spoon on our dessert again.

“Mmm, sweeter than the cake,” I murmured.

Ash smiled shyly and ducked his face, but not before I noticed his beautiful kiss-reddened lips and the tops of his pink ears. After a moment, he turned back to me. “Oh shit, I totally forgot to tell you.”

“What?”

“After you left the shop yesterday, Emily told me to invite you to her place for game night tomorrow night.”

Ash’s face was bright and flushed and I thought he’d never looked lovelier. “Really? Or are you making that up?” I teased.

“No, really. She overheard you ask me out for tomorrow night and said afterward I should have just invited you to join me at her place. What do you say? Game night? It’ll make me more comfortable if you’re there. I don’t know any of her friends or her boyfriend.”

I felt the rapid beat of my heart reacting to the invitation to spend another evening with Ash and I felt like surely my answer was obvious. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

After dessert and a simple kiss on the cheek, we exchanged phone numbers and went our separate ways. I couldn’t help but keeping looking over my shoulder at Ash until he was out of sight.

A move he mirrored.

And that had me smiling the whole fucking way home.

I couldn’t help myself after I woke up Saturday morning. I wound up texting Ash, telling him what a good time I’d had the night before and thanking him again for including me in Emily’s plans. He texted back and we got into a bit of a text flirt back and forth until it was time to go to Emily’s.

She lived in a ground-floor apartment with a big, open living area filled with lots of comfortable seating. Once we each grabbed a beer from a cooler on the floor, Ash and I found spots on one of the sofas. I loved the fact that he naturally gravitated toward me and chose to sit next to me. I told myself it was simply because he didn’t know anybody else, but it felt good regardless.

By the time Emily pulled out an easel with a giant pad of paper on it, I began to suspect what we were playing.