Page 25 of Should Our Stars Collide

There seems to be a theme here.

As Kieran passes by the café windows, he stops to give Ash the finger, before taking off again.

Ash’s heart freaking flutters. He sighs wistfully. God, he can’t wait for the day Kieran gives in and turns into a shameless, begging mess for him.

The sound of his name pulls him from daydreaming (andpotentially from sporting a boner in broad daylight). He turns towards his new victim and his cousin. Gabe is wearing his signature annoyed face, while Ellis is looking at him with mild terror.

“I see you’ve talked about me.” Ash walks forward, holding out his hand. “You must be Ellis.”

A look of surprise passes across Ellis’ face. He reminds Ash of a confused puppy.

“Yes.” Ellis takes Ash’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“It really is,” Ash drawls, his grip tightening a notch. He takes advantage of the close proximity and slips into Ellis’ mind, searching for any red flags. He only manages to scratch the surface, coming across nothing substantial, when Gabe interferes.

“Ash!” he barks. “Cut it out.”

Ash withdraws from Ellis’ mind, holding his hands up and adopting his best innocent face, which is…well, very poor.

His voice is heavy with insinuation when he speaks to Ellis again. “I’ve hearda lotabout you.”

“Only the worst, I hope,” Ellis says.

His expression is remarkably stoic, despite being clearly uncomfortable with Ash’s attention. Impressive.

Letting out a hearty laugh, he turns to Gabe. “I like him.”

“Don’t.”

Apparently out of customers, Zeke joins their little group. “Wow. What did you do to Kieran?” he asks Ash. “I haven’t seen anything that amusing in a while.”

“Nothing.” Three skeptical pairs of eyes land on him. “He’s so highly strung I don’t even have to try to rile him up.” It’s true. But that doesn’t mean he’ll let the opportunity pass if it presents itself.

“Why do you want to rile him up, again?”

Figuring Gabe would ban him from the café if he actually told the truth, he just smiles mysteriously and steers the conversation towards Zeke. “When was the last time you saw something amusing?”

Zeke purses his lips and taps his chin. “Probably when Gabby lost control of his mouth andtold loverboy over here he’d like to eat hisass.”

On cue, Ellis chokes on his coffee, coughing up a storm. It would be hilarious on its own, but it gets better when Gabe starts sputtering through some lame excuse, making it even worse for himself.

“I didn’t— That’s not—” He turns his pleading eyes to Ellis, before fixing them on Zeke with a look of utter loathing. The effect is diminished by the bright-red color of his face. “I hate you.”

Zeke laughs and leaves to serve a customer.

Taking advantage of Gabe’s distracted state, Ash dives into Ellis’ mind again.

Big mistake. He doesn’t get far this time either, but that’s because he willingly breaks the connection. He shouldn’t be surprised that Ellis’ thoughts are currently revolving around his ass and Gabe’s mouth. Ash isn’t a prude by any means, but hedoes notwant to scar himself by watching his cousin have sex, even if it’s just in someone else’s imagination, thank you very much.

On the other hand, he’s glad to have confirmation that Ellis isn’t too shy about dating a man for the first time. Honestly, when Gabe had told him his now boyfriend has zero experience with dick, Ash had been worried. He doesn’t want Gabe to get hurt, which, knowing what a softie his cousin is, is highly probable.

Okay. Good. Ash won’t have to kick anybody’s ass. For now.

“So…Kieran is clearly fond of you,” Ellis suddenly speaks.

“Don’t worry, he’ll come around.” Hopefully, he’s not smiling too much. He can’t seem to help himself when his thoughts steer towards that little grump.

“Wait. That was you flirting?” Ellis asks, taken aback.