The theatre is dark and cold with white lights along the stairs that lead to higher and higher seats. The screen at the front of the room is bigger than any I’ve ever seen and I'm even more grateful for my black sweater and wool scarf when we choose seats closer to the top of the room, four rows away from Evie and Philip.
There aren’t many people here, and I’m trying to decide whether that’s a good thing, when Gabriel leaves to find the bathroom. It couldn’t be more than five minutes when he returns to sit beside me and I tilt my head up with a bored expression, “Do you know where—?”
My words trail off into silence. My heart simultaneously seizes and stutters all at once. Because even in the dim light Reuben’s watching me with a familiar heat, and his smirk sends a shiver across my skin.
“Where, what?” His voice sends shivers across my skin and I’m staring because it’s the furthest from what I expected.
“You’re joking.”
“I love jokes, baby,” he whispers and I can only watch with wide eyes as he leans into my seat and takes my lips with his teeth. As startled as I am, I don’t pull away. The scent of coffee in my nose, the taste of him—by now, it’s too familiar. It’s sunk so deep into my skin, it’s practically brainwashed me.
When he breaks the kiss, I'm sure the fire in his eyes is mirrored in mine.
“What… are you doing?” Stars, it’s like the kiss scattered my thoughts.
“You asked me to watch a movie with you.” The murmur of his voice makes my dick twitch and I’m tongue-tied for a few seconds before I can find my reason again.
“I saidafterwork. Not during.”
He tilts his head, “But you’re happy to see me.”
Ugh. I squint my eyes into a piercing stare, preparing the harsh words on my tongue, “Reuben, if this is distracting you—”
“You don’t want to threaten me, baby.” His words are spoken slowly. Lazily.His voice is devastating and the spark in his eyes is daring me to keep going. To risk it. To test him.
I know better.
His cheek rests on his fist as he watches me, but even in the dark of the theatre, his charm is magnetic. “Besides, isn’t it your fault for distracting me?”
I ignore him with narrowed eyes, “Does Xavier know you’re here? Is Gabriel even coming back?”
“I think I hate other men's names on those lips,”he mutters under his breath in Spanish and I blink. I’m so unprepared, my insides melt. Ever since the start of this operation, there hasn’t been anything else to do aside from monitor Evie… but I’m not sure now if I should’ve blazed through the Spanish language like I did.
Ugh.
“Don’t worry about them, baby.” He threads his fingers through mine, and I sink into my chair in an attempt to hide the blush on my face as the movie starts up.
“What kind of movie is it anyway?” I grumble but my fingers only slide more deeply into his.
“I think it’s a re-run alien movie.”
The word alien makes me wince and I sink even further.
Reuben squeezes my fingers gently with a chuckle, "You don't like alien movies?"
I’d like them a little more if the aliens weren’t always blown to bits in the end.
Not to mention the ‘aliens’ in question are rarely friendly. They’re either wild and predatory, or intelligent enough to justify mass murder.
"They're unrealistic," I mumble. And depressing.
“But our planet is just one in millions out there,” Reuben’s head tilts to one side. “It might not be that unrealistic.”
My head snaps to him and there’s so much suspicion in my gaze that hesnorts, “I’m just saying. I wouldn't be surprised.”
“Never thought you were the type to reflect on the possibility of alien life.”
“I’m a balanced guy,” he grins.
