“It’s been almost four years since you saw me last.” Addison twisted in my arms as she spoke and looked up at me. I hadn’t realized I had spoken out loud.
“Has it really been that long?” It felt like I’d been touring forever and there had been so few breaks in the schedule. And when we had one, Addison wasn’t around.
“It would have been longer if you hadn’t crashed my twenty-first birthday party.”
Chuckling, I said, “Excuse me. Your parents invited me.”
At the mention of her parents, an invisible mask fell over Addison’s face.
“What are we doing, Asher? You keep mentioning my parents, and frankly, that kills the mood.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just. . .your dad is my best friend, Addison. It’s hard not for me to talk about him.”
“I get it. I really do. But it makes me uncomfortable. I’ll feel like we’re having a moment or something, then you’ll talk about my dad and everything spirals away.”
Just as I was about to speak up, the buzzer on my phone went off. I retrieved the two pizzas with the wooden spatula and placed them on the pans, extinguishing the fire in the oven when I was done.
Silently Addison followed me back inside the house, where I placed the pans on the kitchen island; there was no sense in eating at the full-sized table set to feed ten. It was just the two of us. She sat at one of the barstools while I poured us a glass of wine and retrieved plates and a pizza cutter.
She waited for me to sit down and lift the piece of pie to my mouth before she lifted her own. But she waited with bated breath for me to take a bite of the culinary masterpiece she had concocted.
“I don’t know,” I said just before the tip of the slice would have passed between my lips, pulling it away and scrunching my nose like it smelled bad. It actually smelled delicious.
“Just eat it,” she said, putting down her piece and facing me on her stool.
I gazed at her like I wasn’t going to budge, holding the pizza away as if it were the grossest thing on this planet.
“Asher!” she cried out, grabbing my hand and trying to force it toward my mouth. “Eat it, dammit!”
“I don’t want to.”
Under her breath, I hear her mumble, “I swear to God,” before she shifted off her stool and swung onto my mine facing me, my hand containing the pizza now empty. I had been so distracted by her movement that I lost grasp of the slice.
“Addison,” I cautioned.
“Try it. I swear, Asher. Just try a bite. Take a chance.”
With her hand holding the slice in front of me, I leaned forward and took a small bite, making sure to get some of the prosciutto and arugula with the cheese and crust. I chewed and was surprised at the rush of flavors as they hit my tongue, but there was no way I was going to let her know that I was enjoying it.
“So?” she prompted, biting her lip anxiously.
“I don’t know,” I lied.
Tentatively she took a bite of my piece with narrowed eyes.
“Oh my gosh! This is delicious, Asher.”
“Maybe.”
Addison’s arm reached out and smacked my shoulder. “Oh my gosh, you are such a liar Asher Blake. You absolutely love this pizza.”
Chuckling, I nodded and told her that it was indeed better than I expected. Was I going to order it over a greasy pepperoni anytime soon? Probably not. But it was worth considering at some of the more high-end pizza places.
Addison shifted, trying to slip off my lap, but I wrapped my arm around her waist and held her in place. I really liked the way she felt against me. Her eyes went wide and I could sense the confusion in them. I’d been running hot and cold with this girl giving her whiplash.
Grabbing the slice of pizza from her hand, I held it out for her, an overwhelming desire to feed her from my hand over taking over me. My cock twitched the second she opened her mouth and leaned forward. That cute little tongue of hers slipped out the corner of her mouth to wipe away some residual sauce on her mouth and I had an image pop in my head of her using that tongue to lick at my cock.
Fuck I internally groaned.