“Funny?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as we reached the bakery. The lights were still on in Dawn’s apartment, so at least I wasn’t about to crash in there and wake her up. Not that it was so late I really expected to. It’d been just after nine when we left the beer garden.
“Funny,” Xander confirmed. “Kind,” he added. “Insightful. Smart.” A pause. “Sexy.”
Sexy.
I swallowed again.
Xander was looking at me, lips slightly parted, and his mouth looked so soft and inviting. I hadn’t noticed how close we were, huddled in the doorway of the bakery, sheltering from the night air together.
I did notice when Xander put a hand on my sweater, though.
There was a question in his eyes and I nodded without needing to know what it was, because the answer wasyes. Whatever he wanted.
As it turned out, what he wanted was to pounce on me.
I hissed as his teeth collided with my lower lip, wincing as he pulled back and wishing I’d managed not to make a sound. I wanted him to kiss me, and I was willing to accept a couple of bruises for it.
I opened my mouth to say so when the sound of hinges I’d told myself I needed to oil earlier today squealed behind us, light suddenly spilling out of the florist as a tall, dark woman in a bright raspberry coat stepped out. She must have been Roxie.
She darted in and kissed Dawn’s cheek, sensible heels clicking as she stepped back with a wave that told me everything I needed to know about what she thought of my little sister. That was a woman with a crush. I’d seen Zara acting exactly the same way.
And she would have killed for that coat.
“Milo!” Dawn called out.
I stepped away from Xander faster than I meant to, as though I’d been doing something I shouldn’t have. Maybe I had. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. After all, his love life was already the talk of the town. He wouldn’t want to risk a second round, would he?
No, he wouldn’t. It was better if I forgot all about it, if I cared about Xander at all. Right?
“I’d better…” I said, jerking my head toward Dawn with my hands shoved firmly into my pockets. “I’ll umm. I had a great night,” I said, turning away before he had a chance to say anything.
It was the right thing to do. We were both… okay, we were nothing like drunk, but we weren’t perfectly sober either, and it was so easy to make a bad decision on impulse.
I wasn’t sure I was meant to feel so awful about making the right choice.
Remembering the look on Xander’s face made my heart lurch. Seemed a little unfair if I’d made a good decision.
Just as I was hanging up my coat, my phone vibrated in the pocket.
catdad_93: good night
Dammit.
11
XANDER
“Iwarnedyouabout the communication thing,” Dante insisted between bites of my latest sourdough experiment. “This is good by the way.”
“You told me to be more vocal in bed,” I said, scrubbing an imaginary spot off the counter while my ears burned. “The crust isn’t too hard?”
“No, it’s perfect, you’re a genius,” Dante said. “At least, you’re a baking genius, apparently it’s not an across the board thing,” he added. “What I meant, what I’m pretty sure Isaidwas, he needs to hear you say things. Out loud. You can’t just… talk with your mouth.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“You know what I mean.” Dante sighed. “You bit him instead of telling him, clearly, that you wanted to kiss him. He needs words. Virgos are like that.”
“It was more of a headbutt,” I said. “With my teeth. And I think he was kinda into it.”
