Page 34 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?! (Carry A Faerie #1)

After scrolling through to the last time I’d taken Goliath to Lyric’s, I passed the phone over so he could see the cuteness.

Miles smiled and scrolled through, oohhing and ahhing as he went.

He stared at the phone, and I stared at him, watching his eyes light up with every picture.

He was the biggest animal person I’d ever met, and I thought Lyric and I were bad.

Miles's brown hair was all gelled up in messy spikes, like he always wore it outside of the house, and his brown eyes were practically glowing with happiness. It made his entire face shine, and I just really, really, really wanted to kiss him again.

Again and again and again.

“You okay, Win?”

I blinked from my kissing-Miles-daze. “Uh, yeah. You’re just really handsome.”

As predicted, his cheeks flamed. “Thanks. I think you are too.”

I grinned, reached over, picked up his hand, and kissed the back of it. “Thanks, Sidekick.”

He rolled his eyes, but there was a smile playing on his lips.

After we ordered our meals, I took Miles's hand again, holding it across the table. Miles squeezed my hand, offering that adorably cute smile of his.

“I’m so happy you came out with me,” I whispered.

“Me too.”

We chatted and held hands the entire time we waited for our food, and I only let go because it was the only way to fit our plates on the table. If I could’ve, I would’ve held his hand while we ate too. But he probably wouldn’t have liked trying to cut his food up with only one hand.

Sola had perfect manners and let me feed her a few of the veggies from my plate, which she happily took.

Miles kept grinning at the firebird, and she trilled at him and rubbed her little face against him almost constantly.

It was clear the two of them were happy about their new practitioner-familiar bond. I was really happy for them.

By the time we were ready to go, I was itching to get out of there. Not because I wanted to leave Miles, but because I wanted to hold him and kiss him for a while without an audience.

I made sure to hold Miles’s hand all the way back to the car and kissed his cheek before I opened his door. He shot me another grin.

“So gentlemanly.”

I gave him a little bow that made him laugh. “Why, thank you.”

I drove him back to his house, put the car in park, and said, “I’m going to walk you to the door, then go home so we can both get a good night’s rest since we have to be up tomorrow morning.”

He sucked in a breath. “You sure you don’t want to come in?”

He had no idea how badly I wanted that. But after what he’d said earlier, that he hadn’t known if this was a one-night stand type of thing or not, I wanted to make it abundantly clear how badly I wanted a relationship with him.

Sleeping with him tonight, after our first date, probably wasn’t the way to go if I wanted to prove that to him.

I was in it for the long haul, baby.

“I would love to come in, but this isn’t a race. I want this to work long-term, and I want you to know that.” I leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to his mouth. “I want you, but I want to keep dating you even more.”

He swallowed thickly, and it made me want to lick his Adam’s apple. “Right. Okay.”

“Is that okay?”

His lips quirked up on one side. “Definitely. I, um, I want to keep dating you too. This was really fun.”

“Agreed.” I booped his nose—making him snort—and got out of the car.

He followed suit, and the two of us put all the things we’d bought for Chaos in Miles’s truck, then we grabbed the supplies he bought for Sola and Odin—and left the two toys I couldn’t help but buy for Goliath—and carried them up to his porch.

He placed his bags, along with Sola, inside, then grabbed the ones I was carrying, set them inside the door, and turned to face me. “Thanks again for a great night.”

“Thank you too, sugar butt.”

He shook his head in exasperation but was smiling. “You and these weird nicknames.”

With a small chuckle, I stepped in, gripped his chin with my forefinger and thumb, and tilted his head back a bit so he was looking up at me.

Then I leaned in and kissed him. The kiss was slow, sweet, and filled with affection—I could feel it coming from him in waves, and I could only hope he could feel it from me as well.

Like earlier, my body filled with tiny electric jolts that zinged all over me, making pleasure buzz under my skin, but especially, inside my chest. Something about this, about him, felt right down to my very bones.

He tasted like hope and dreams I didn’t think were possible. He tasted like my future.

And I was so fucking excited to find out exactly what that future held… with Miles by my side.

Maybe it was too soon, but I was determined to make him mine.

I broke the kiss, pecked his cheek, then the corner of his mouth, then his lips one last time before stepping back. “Mm. God, you taste good.”

“Probably the chocolate cake you made me share with you.”

I laughed and leaned in for another quick taste. “Mm. I do taste the chocolate, but I think you taste even better.”

He flushed, but definitely looked pleased.

After one last soft kiss, I backed away again. “Moving away from you is no easy feat.”

“Ditto.”

I grinned and winked at him. “I’ll see you in the morning, future boyfriend.”

He snorted and gave me a wave. “See you tomorrow, White Knight.”

With a big smile on my face, I turned away and walked to my car, already dying for it to be eight o’clock in the morning so I could spend more time with him.