“Careful, Red.” Pleasurable goosebumps dotted my skin at Josh’s soft warning. “Keep saying things like that, and I might never let you go.”
Heat blazed over my face. I was getting lightheaded from the lack of oxygen, but no matter how hard I tried to breathe, it wasn’t enough. Every ounce of air vibrated with an electric charge that lit me up from the inside.
I might’ve collapsed right there at the corner table in Giorgio’s had the jangle of bells over the entrance not loosened the stranglehold on me. It was followed by a cool, clear voice.
“Alex Volkov. Table for two.”
Josh and I tore our eyes from each other and turned to the front of the restaurant in mutual horror.
Alex and Ava stood near the hostess’s stand. They hadn’t noticed us yet. Alex was busy looking at Ava, and Ava was busy chatting with the hostess, but it was only a matter of time. The restaurant was tiny.
“Oh my God.” I averted my eyes and shielded the side of my face with my hand. “What do we do?”
As far as Alex and Ava knew, Josh and I still hated each other. If we were somewhere more casual, we could play it off as having accidentally run into each other, but there was nothing accidental about sitting at the same candlelit table in a romantic restaurant on a Friday night.
“We have two options.” Josh’s voice was so low it was almost inaudible. “One, we stay and face the music with courage. Two, we sneak out through the back before they see us like cowards.”
We stared at each other.
“Option two,” we mouthed in unison.
Luckily, we’d already paid. The challenge was getting to the kitchen without Alex and Ava seeing us.
We kept our backs to the rest of the restaurant as we edged toward the swinging double doors. We didn’t want to attract attention by running, but my heart felt like it would fall out of my chest with each passing second.
By some miracle, we snuck into the kitchen before our friends spotted us. Once we did, we broke into a run, earning ourselves started glances from the staff.
“Hey!” one of the line cooks yelled. “You’re not supposed to be in here!”
“Sorry!” I yelled back over my shoulder. “We wanted to pay our compliments to the chef!”
“The pappardelle al ragu was excellent,” Josh added. “Five out of five stars.”
“I’m calling the manager.” The line cook raised his voice. “Sergio!”
Shit.
“Go, go, go!” Josh grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the exit. We spilled out into the alleyway behind the restaurant right as a man whom I assumed was Sergio shouted something incomprehensible at us. We didn’t stop running until we were several blocks away, and I bent over to catch my breath.
“Shit,” I wheezed. Cardio wasn’t my strong suit, and it showed. “I can’t believe we just did that.”
“At least we left a big tip.” Josh wasn’t even out of breath, the bastard. “We’ll throw a Yelp review on top of that. Good food, clean kitchen. We saw it with our own eyes.”
For some reason, the suggestion struck me as absurd. I doubled over again, this time from laughter. A second passed before Josh joined me.
Maybe it was the food, the adrenaline from our near run-in with our friends, or the crisp evening air, but exhilaration whipped through me until the world tilted.
I had never felt so incredibly, indescribably alive.
Our laughter gradually faded, but the balloon of pleasure in my chest lingered.
“So, tell me, Red.” A smile lingered at the corners of Josh’s mouth. “On a scale of one to ten, how great was the date?”
“Hmm.” I tapped my chin. “Seven point five, rounded up to eight for the scavenger hunt.”
“Eight, huh?” He took a step toward me.
My heart beat a little faster. “Uh-huh.”
“What do I have to do to make it a ten?” His gaze dropped to my mouth.
“Well, you do owe me a prize.” Was that breathless, giddy voice mine? “Keep your promises, Chen.”
“You’re right.” Josh cupped my face with one hand and brushed his thumb over my lip. Electric sparks formed over my skin. “How rude of me to keep you waiting.”
He leaned down and kissed me. The touch was featherlight, but it traveled from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.
“How about that? Are we at ten yet?” he whispered against my lips.
“Um.” My head swam with pleasure. “Maybe a nine.”
“Hmm. That won’t do.” He kissed me again, firmer this time. His tongue swept along the seam of my lips and nudged inside when I parted for him. A fog of lust clouded my brain while he explored my mouth, his hand a possessive weight on my hip. When he finally pulled back, I could barely remember my name. “What about now?”
“Nine point five,” I rasped after a long, dizzy pause.
“Nine point five.” Josh wrapped my ponytail around his other hand and gave it a light yank that shot straight to my core. “Are you playing with me, Red?” he asked silkily.
“Are you complaining?”
His eyes glowed with amusement and something else that sent warm tendrils spiraling through my insides. “Not even a little bit.”
This time, the kiss was harder, more urgent.
I sank into it, letting Josh’s touch and taste sweep me away to a place where we were the only people who existed.
I once read somewhere that the opposite of love wasn’t hate, it was indifference. The flames of hate and passion burned in equal measure.
I couldn’t pinpoint the specific moment my feelings toward Josh changed. I didn’t even know what my current feelings toward him were, exactly.
All I knew was, he set me ablaze, and I never wanted the fire to go out.