“Hey,” he says, tilting his head, and I make an exacerbated noise in the back of my throat. He’s mad at me. He shouldn’t be rude to Jessa. He glances over at me like he’s done nothing wrong. “What?” he asks, and I glare at him.
“You can be a little nicer to Aiden’s girlfriend, considering he hasn’t had one in forever.”
Lincoln laughs at his brother’s expense and shakes his head, going back to glaring at me.
“How much have you had to drink?” Lincoln asks me, like he isn’t completely wasted himself.
“A few rounds, but one of them was free?”
“What?” Jessa asks and I shrug at her.
“This older dude wanted to buy us a round. I might not be the brightest, but I don’t turn down free drinks.”
Everyone looks at me like I’m insane for taking a free drink, and I shrug it off.
“Can I please drive you two degenerates home now?” Aiden asks, looking at me and Lincoln.
Lincoln’s hand lands on my thigh and he rubs his hand back and forth under the table. My heart rate immediately picks up as I glance over at Aiden and Jessa who seem like they’re in theirown little romance bubble. I should stop him. I know I should fling his hand off and tell him we promised not to pursue this any longer. But it feels too good, and I missed him way too much.
I know there's a sick part of me that likes the wrongness, the fear of getting caught. Though I don’t truly want that, not really. I try to grab his hand, and he swats me away.
“I need to eat something,” Lincoln complains and I nod in agreement.
“I swear, if you fucking throw up in my car,” Aiden warns him.
Lincoln rolls his eyes but picks up the menu. He orders some food and never stops touching my leg under the table. Of course Jessa drops her phone at that time and bends under the table to grab it. Lincoln isn’t paying attention and I’m too slow to move his hand.
Fucking stupid slip up.
When she pops back up, she blinks at me, clearly confused by what she just saw. I shake my head and she just waves it off. I’m nervous she’s going to tell Aiden what she saw, but I don’t think she would do that to me.
“Aiden?” she says, looking over at him.
“Yeah, baby?”
“Do you want to dance with me?”
“Sure,” he agrees, and they stroll off to the dance floor.
It’s official, Jessa Peters is the best friend a girl could ask for as she distracts my cousin and moves him far away from our table.
Lincoln’s hand slides further up my dress and I grab his wrist.
“What are you doing? Jessa just saw your hand on my thigh,” I hiss at him.
“Good.”
I pull his hand off, and he plants it right back on.
“Stop being so fucking difficult,” he complains, like I’m being unreasonable.
“Fuck you. I’m not being difficult. We decided that we wouldn’t do this, it was the weekend only. We can’t be anything beyond that.”
“No, Penny. You decided,” he says, his gaze boring into mine. “I know you miss me just as much as I miss you. Tell me you didn’t miss me and I’ll leave you alone.”
“Linc,” I sigh his name and he squeezes my thigh hard and I look up at him. Usually I’m a pretty good liar, but right now as much as I know I should lie, I don’t.
“That’s what I thought,” he says and I sigh.
