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He smirked; and looked really fucking cute doing it. Especially in his knightly get-up.
I continued ticking them off on my fingers as we stood in the middle of an increasingly crowded living room. “Um… oh! My favorite one, of course—thou shall not honor any god but me, because I am a very jealous god,” I mocked.
He cleared his throat, obviously wanting to comment on that, but he surprised me by not saying anything and gesturing for me to continue.
“Thou shall not… be an asshole.” I gave up. I didn’t know any of the other ones, and Neil’s growing amusement was making me all fluttery inside. “Do you even follow the ten commandments? You’re not Catholic.”
“I do.” He smiled. “A slightly different version of them, but yeah, we do.”
Jax bounded into us. “Thanks, man!” He took the beer from Neil’s hand, andthat,madeso much more sense. Hand to Neil’s God, I felt the earth settle back onto its axis.
“No worries,” Neil said. “Sorry I got held up.”
Jax gave him a knowing, mischievous look even though I was standing right there between them, so I elbowed him in the ribs. His fingers dug into me as payback, and I let out an unintentional squeal as I shoved him away. I hated being tickled. It was pure torture—one-hundred percent. Literally, getting punched in the face would pain me less.Ugh.Such a violation, and Jax knew better.
Neil was suppressing a smile, but he curled his arm around me, and all was forgiven. It might’ve been worth it.
I saidmight’ve.
Jax winked at me as Neil led me back into the kitchen, and I flipped him off, fighting to hold back my smile.
“You want a Coke?” Neil asked, oblivious to the scene playing out behind him.
“Sure,” I answered.
He poured himself a Coke, sans Sprite, and I asked for the same. Then we found ourselves on the back porch, sitting on the steps that led down to Jax’s pool.
“I spent most of the summer here,” Neil offered.
“Yeah, Jax told me.” I took a sip my of drink, fully appreciating the burning tingles it left in its wake. It only proved that it was essentially poison, but I didn’t care.
His eyebrows rose with understanding. He was probably wondering how much Jax had told me. “You guys are pretty close?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’d say so. He’s like a brother to me—and I saybrother,because I want to punch him in the face half the time.”
He chuckled. “He can be a lot, but he’s a solid guy.”
“This is true.” I nodded, spinning my cup around in my hand.
“So… back to our earlier conversation,” he hedged.
I looked up at him, noting that his brown eyes looked lighter in the warm glow of Jax’s pool lights. A few more thoughts barreled into that one. Something about the fullness of his lips, and the way his hands were folded together, and how I liked how strong they looked.
This first date of ours was kind of…weird.I felt so many things when I looked at him, but I also feel inexplicably comfortable with him tonight, too. Like we were just two friends hanging out and getting to know each other better. (Well, two friends, one of which I knew for certain wanted to do wicked things to the other, but I wasn’t going to name any names or anything.)
I was actually enjoying myself, though, and his company.
“Have you been on a lot of dates?” he asked, and it was apparent he was referring to ourearlier,earlier conversation. It would be a lie to say I wasn’t interested in revisiting it, too.
I shook my head. “No. Not really, actually.” I usually met guys at parties, skipped over the whole dating thing, and went straight into making out and heavy petting. I wasn’t mad about it; things were less complicated that way. “Don’t look so surprised!” I shouted with amusement when I noticed his bewildered expression.
He laughed. “No, it’s not what you’re thinking. I’m just surprised you’re not asked out every other day is all.”
Was that my cheeks flooding with warmth?Yep, sure was.I was blushing.I.I ducked my head, throwing my hands over my face as I shook my head. “Thanks, Neil.” The words were muffled by my palms. I took a breath and glanced back over at him. He was smiling, clearly entertained by my ridiculous show.
“Lucky me, then, huh?” he said. It was more of a statement than a question, and I refused to let myself blush again even though that comment was pretty damn worthy of a blush.
“Definitely,” I quipped instead. “So, if you don’t really date, and you don’t do the girlfriend thing, what is this?” I gestured between us with my cup in my hand.Way to be forward.But that was me—usually.