He looked up at her, finding her grinning down at him. “Yes, dear?”
“We suck at the stealth kiss.”
“You think? We must have unresolved exhibitionist tendencies. Take off your shirt, and we’ll find out.”
She sniffed and got off him, letting him sit up. “I’ll pass.”
He climbed to his feet and helped her to hers. “Your loss. I would’ve taken off mine.”
“We also suck at this boundaries thing. You can’t…” She pressed her lips together and made some swirling motion with her finger.
“Can’t what? Kiss you when you blatantly demand I do it?”
She flinched. “No. Say sweet stuff like you did. Flirting’s on the table. That…that is not.”
His brows lifted. “Okay, so say asshole things instead?”
“Yes. That’d be better. Be an asshole.” She grabbed her camera, tucked it in her bag, and then slung the bag over her shoulder. “I know you’ve had a lot of practice at that.”
“I really don’t need to practice. That comes naturally. But fair warning, you might find that irresistibly hot, too.”
She groaned.
“What? I’m following instructions. That was an asshole thing to say.”
She bit her lip, and a small smile broke through. “Come on. Time to go home before we get kicked out for lewd behavior.”
He grabbed her other bag. “If that’s what you consider lewd, you haven’t lived yet, Arias.”
Her smile sagged and she turned toward the parking lot as he fell into step beside her. “Don’t try to out-lewd me. I was that girl in college. My rap sheet is probably way more scandalous than yours. And here I am, basically throwing myself at a guy again when we’ve made an agreement to keep it platonic.”
He glanced over at her, not liking how she said it, like it was some sort of damning sentence. He grabbed her hand, halting her. “Hey.”
She didn’t look at him. “What?”
“You’re not throwing yourself at me. And this—us—is never going to be platonic.”
Her gaze jumped to his.
“We may be able to keep from going to bed together because we’re trying to be smart about this, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that the thing we have between us is going to go away. The attraction is always there. Knowing we can’t have it makes it worse. It’s like being locked in a room with fresh baked cookies but only being allowed to smell them and not take a bite.”
She frowned.
“But the difficulty of resisting is still worth the effort because I know that, at least for me, I haven’t had fun like this in a really long time. I don’t have rock-skipping contests. I don’t get to relax and joke around with someone who I don’t have to bullshit. I don’t get to scandalize a group of joggers. And I know it’s pretty obvious, but I live a lonely fucking life on purpose. I like it that way. But when you’re around, you make me not want to.”
“Finn…” She blinked, her eyes going shiny in the fading sunset, and shoved him lightly. “You’re not sticking to the asshole rule, asshole.”
His lips curved, and he grabbed her hand. “Sorry. I’ll try harder.” He stepped back and gave her an exaggerated up-and-down look. “You also have a great rack. Like top-notch.”
She smirked, then tipped her chin up. “That’s not being an asshole. That’s stating the obvious.”
He laughed. “True enough.”
She shook her head, tugging on his hand. “Come on. Now I’m hungry. Let’s run by the grocery store, and I’ll fix us a nice platonic dinner.”
“So no hot dogs and buns?”
She pulled him toward the parking lot and grinned. “Or pigs in a blanket.”