He rolls his eyes. “Tomorrow morning, Orion. Tell them,” he says into the phone, still not looking away. Then he hangs up, dropping it onto a large stack of paper. “She likes the coffee place, then?”
I slump into the armchair by the window while he rounds his desk, leaning against it.
“Seems so. Why, you thinking of buying that too?” I smirk, and jackpot, silver glare engaged. “I might need to take her somewhere else anyway.”
Zeek frowns. “Why?”
“I don’t like the barista.”
He narrows his gaze. “Why, Sai?”
I shrug. “Don’t like how he looks at her.”
His voice goes all serious. “Sai, what did you do?”
“He couldn’t stop staring at her. So every time he looked.” I raise my fingers, and a crackle of blue weaves between them. “I corrected it.”
Zeek shakes his head but doesn’t scold me, he’s too busy trying to hide the smile creeping in.
Then he straightens up, and his gaze turns a little… wary. “How was she this morning?”
“Man,” I groan, closing my eyes with a wide grin. “She looked good, always does, but this morning?” I let out a low whistle. “Something felt different. Just…more.” I trail off, still smiling. “Maybe the friend zone’s not so bad?”
Zeek huffs a laugh, but adds nothing. Strange. He spends all night next door to our girl and he’s got nothing to say? That’s my cue to dig.
“And how was your night, mate?” I stretch out my legs, hands behind my head, wiggling my brows. “Finally make it to third base with the wall?”
Zeek finally takes a sip of the coffee, nose scrunching from the sugar hit. Not my fault the barista’s hands were shaky as fuck.
“I don’t know what that means, Sai,” he sighs, pulling on his lips like he can scrub off the sweetness.
“Third base?” I lift a brow. “Touching things.Sensitivethings.”
He shakes his head with a soft scoff, coffee down and phone back in hand. “You’re ridiculous.”
“I don’t know, man. Something was in the air last night. Because, fuck, my imagination was running wild.” He’s half-listening, thumbs already tapping—probably sending a sweet little text to our girl.
“I wasn’t even trying to get hard. Just kept hearing these soft little moans…”
Zeek stops mid-text.
“Fuck,” I groan, remembering it. I have no restraint? Should’ve seen me last night. Fucking King Restraint. “It’s like she was right there. Right next to me.”
His eyes meet mine, and stay there.
I frown. “What?”
Zeek stays incredibly still. No response. Just stares.
I rewind what I’ve said. It’s not the first time I’ve had delicious thoughts about Red, but last night, they were so intense. Some didn’t even feel like my own thoughts, a little bit too PG. A little too real. Almost like…
Like it was happening…
Like someone else—
“Fuck off,” bursts out of me.
Zeek’s jaw tenses.
