Page 19 of Honey and Spice

“What?” I stopped in my tracks. Men who looked like him and acted like him and, okay, fine, kissedlike him, did not apologize. Even men who didn’t have his credentials didn’t apologize. Was the music that loud? I really needed to sort out the sound system because it was clearly a health hazard, causing me to hear things that did not—

“I said I’m sorry. You’re right, I hear you. I shouldn’t have compared the two situations when I really don’t know you like that. But here’s the thing”—he rubbed the back of his neck—“I want to. Been wanting to. Since the first time we met.”

My breath hitched, but I forced myself to breathe, for the expression on my face to stay the same.Cool.I hadn’t been ready for that, but it was fine. He did this all the time.Evolved. Player.

“The first time we met you were going to Zuri Isak’s room—”

“The first time we met you were coming out of Zack Kingsford’s room.”

Touché. I didn’t know if it was great or terrible that he was reasonable. Hot and reasonable. He was also was kind of a dick, the same way I was kind of a dick. It was slowly occurring to me that perhaps he wasn’t the Wasteman of Whitewell. The Wasteman of Whitewell wouldn’t have helped a girl who called him the Wasteman of Whitewell get revenge on another guy (a guy infinitely more fitting of the title). He wouldn’t have noticed her discomfort. Granted, he could have had his own agenda to shame me, but there were easier ways. He could have let me squirm, turned it around, and used the opportunity to embarrass me, leave me pouting into the air, but he didn’t.

Malakai cleared his throat in the silence between us.

“You know what? You probably want space. I’m gonna go. And yeah, that kiss was... That kiss was something but it was also nothing. I wanted to help. Me wanting to hang out with you has nothing to do with it. You don’t owe me shit.”

Either he was a preternaturally talented actor, or he was telling the truth.

“I know I don’t.”

Malakai took it as dismissal. He inclined his head deeply, pressed a hand across his chest like he was excusing himself from my court, and shot me a tiny smile. “It was an honor to be your sidekick in making a dickhead squirm, Fellow Superhuman.” He winked and stepped away from me, ready to go. My stomach flipped and spurred my hand to reach out for his wrist.

He looked down at my hand and I found my gaze travelling there too, because I could not believe I’d just done that. My body was in rebellion tonight, acting without permission from my mind. When I looked back up, his eyes were glinting down into mine, asking a question. I nodded. I was here now. I might as well follow through. I dropped his wrist and any pretense that I wasn’t curious.

“I know I don’t owe you shit. Which is why you’re buying me a drink and not the other way around.”

Malakai’s smile widened. That was two shots of dark liquor on its own.

“Yes, ma’am.”

He looked like a bad decision. The best kind of bad decision.