7. Ori
7
ORI
They say nothing good happens after 2 a.m.
But really fucking hot things do.
I stepped out of the diner and onto Laurel Ave. Instantly I was met with the smell of barbecue. The sun was just starting to set, and a crowd of people were standing across the street near the Hard Spot.
“No wonder nobody was coming into Red Fox for the past hour,” I told Thomas as we spotted the Big Slab BBQ food truck parked across the street.
“They bring in food trucks for game night at the Hard Spot,” Danielle said from behind us. She’d just left Olivia with the babysitter for two hours so she could come with us.
“Guessing these game nights are kind of a big deal, if the crowd is any indication,” I said as we walked past the cobblestone corner on Laurel & Second St.
Normally I would have avoided a big event at a country western saloon—there was bound to be plenty of country music, cowboys, and potentially lots of people from my past I didn’t want to see. Bestens wasn’t the tiniest town, but it sure as hell wasn’t big.
But Dani and Thomas wanted to go, and truthfully, I desperately needed a distraction.
It had been three days since Finn and I did… whatever we did out in his backyard, and the memory had been burned into my brain ever since.
His eyes on mine.
How fearless he’d been.
His goddamn thumb in my mouth, and the way I’d been all too eager to suck it clean.
Each day since then, we’d been stuck in a reverse schedule from each other again. He’d gone out to the ranch early in the morning, then been gone all day with massage clients. I’d worked afternoons and nights in the diner, and by the time I got home, he was asleep already.
We basically hadn’t seen each other at all since that night.
There was one night I’d given him a quick nod in the hallway after he’d grabbed a glass of water, but that was that.
Today my diner shift ended early, though, and…
I wasn’t ready to go home.
To face him.
I was the one who’d broken the ice that night when I called him the “Cumshot King,” but I didn’t know where the hell to go from here.
Even when I’d passed him in the hallway the other night I’d felt my whole body go hot. I’d never thought of Finn sexually before—never would have let myself at all—and now all I could think of was the way he’d looked at me as I came.
Game night at the Hard Spot was my best bet.
“There’s always a good turnout,” Dani was saying as we ambled across the street. “Kane never shies away from throwing a competition.”
“What kind of games are we looking at tonight?” Thomas asked, rubbing his hands together. “I like competition, too.”
“Poker, Jenga, checkers, speed chess, darts, pool,” Dani explained. “I’ve even seen teams for charades, once. Every three months they host a game night. It’s a little different every time.”
“Yo,” a voice came from behind us, and I turned to see Max, the bartender, with a big smile on his face. He was in some kind of sports jersey, a backwards hat, and he had neon body paint tattoos all over his face and arms. “Game night. You ready?”
“What are you doing out here?” Thomas asked him with a smile. “Shouldn’t you be behind the bar?”
Max held up a grocery bag, opening it so I could look inside. It was full of limes.
“People started doing body shots of tequila and now everyone in the bar wants to do them. We’re going to need a lot of limes.”
“How does the ghost cat feel about body shots?” I asked.
Max laughed. “I’d say pretty good,” he told me. “No hauntings today.”
“Ghost cat?” Thomas asked.
“Max is convinced there's a ghost haunting the Hard Spot,” I told him. “After some thought, we figured it might be a cat.”
“Probably is a cat,” Max said with a nod. “The movements all match what a cat’s would be.”
We reached the front doors of the saloon and Max went on ahead, pushing them open for us.
I was greeted with everything I’d expected—country music and dozens of different game tables set up throughout the space. The place was crowded as hell already, with people talking, laughing, and starting up some games.
“You weren’t kidding about the body shots,” Danielle said, nodding over toward the bar.
I looked to see someone shirtless, lying down on top of the bar.
He was wearing a cowboy hat over his face, and another guy was leaning over him, licking up a line of salt from his chest.
The small crowd of people around them whooped and cheered as the guy sucked tequila from on top of his stomach, finishing it with a bite of lime.
As we approached, my heart lurched up to my chest.
One of the people in the little group around them was Finn.
I met his eyes and quickly nodded, trying to keep things as normal as possible.
“Finn,” Danielle said, leaning in to give him a hug. “Didn’t know if you’d be coming tonight.”
“Needed a distraction,” Finn told her.
Tell me about it .
The guy who’d been lying down shirtless on the bar swung his legs over it and hopped down.
“Oh,” I said. “Hey, Mason.”
“Howdy, party people,” he said, handing the cowboy hat back to Finn. “I just got a straight guy to lick salt off of my chest, so I’m doing pretty well, tonight.”
“Who was that guy?” I asked.
“No clue,” Mason said with a grin. “I told him to borrow Finn’s hat, though.”
Finn put the cowboy hat on, glancing over at me.
He looked good tonight. Even I had to admit the hat suited him well, somehow making his jawline and cheekbones stand out even more. He was wearing one of his nicer flannel shirts, a brown and red pattern over a white T-shirt.
“Finn, you’re next,” Mason said.
I lifted my eyebrow. I leaned over toward Thomas, whispering in his ear. “I think Mason secretly wants Finn’s ass, by the way.”
Thomas waggled his eyebrows at me.
“Not a chance I’m licking salt off anybody tonight, Hot Mess,” Finn said. “No thank you.”
“What about letting someone else lick it off of you , then?” Mason said.
“What’s in it for me?”
“The glory of knowing you made someone very happy?” Mason offered. His eyes glanced over at me. “Ori, take a body shot from Finn.”
Something stirred in me.
I knew Finn wouldn’t do it, but after the other night, I wanted to push him.
Just a little.
“I’d do it,” I said.
“Oh, shit!” Mason called out, his eyes going wide with excitement. “He said yes. Finn, you know you’d do it for your best friend. Get that shirt off and get on the bar.”
“You’re wild, and you know it,” Finn told Mason.
“If you let Ori lick salt from your chest, I’ll let you eat free at the diner for a week,” Danielle said, smiling. “Because that would be way too funny.”
“And I’m going to take a video of it if you two do that, by the way,” Max called out from behind the bar, where he was cutting up lime slices.
“No video, for Chrissake,” Finn said.
“Finn isn’t going to do it,” I said definitively. “He’s not really a body-shots kind of guy.”
Finn gave me a hard look for a moment, and I saw something spark behind his eyes. “Is that right, Ori?” he asked in a low tone, reaching up to his hat. He gently took it off, setting it down on the bar before reaching to shrug off his flannel.
“Oh, fuck yes,” Mason said, clapping.
“Ori doesn’t know how much fun we have around here on game night,” Finn said.
My heart beat a little faster as I watched him pull off his T-shirt, going shirtless in front of the bar.
Damn.
Called my bluff.
Danielle was laughing her ass off already. “Let’s fucking go, Finn.”
A few other people around us gave little hollers as Finn cleared a space on the bar, lying back on it.
Finn would never have done anything like this back in the day. He wasn’t timid, but he also wasn’t the type to draw lots of attention to himself. Either he’d changed a lot or he was purely doing this to fuck with me.
Either way, I wasn’t backing down.
“Ready up a tequila shot and a lime, Max,” I said.
Kane came up behind the bar soon, too, after serving a big group of people on the other end.
“Finn Hardy, I never thought I’d see the fuckin’ day,” Kane said.
“Howdy,” Finn told him.
Faint pink slashes had appeared on Finn’s cheeks, and something about that was satisfying as hell.
He still felt it.
All eyes on him, and he was doing it anyway.
Max leaned in, giddy as he placed a perfect little line of salt from above Finn’s belly button up to the center of his chest.
“All right,” Max said, placing the lime slice right above the waistband of Finn’s jeans. “I’m going to pour tequila right here and hope to God it doesn’t slide out onto your friend’s six-pack, here.”
Dani, Mason, and Thomas all had big, goofy smiles on their faces now.
“You ready, Ori?” Mason asked me.
“Let’s fucking do it,” I said.
Finn’s blush deepened as I watched Max pour as much tequila as he could onto the divot of Finn’s belly button.
“Go!” Max said, and everyone around us cheered as I leaned down, licking from Finn’s chest down to his stomach. I sucked up the tequila, drinking it down before leaning over and grabbing the lime with my teeth, right from above his waistband.
“ Fuck yeah, Ori,” Mason said, immediately reaching both hands up to give me a double high-five.
The tequila burned a little in my throat, and with the tartness of the lime, it felt damn good.
As I squeezed a little more lime into my mouth, it dripped down my thumb.
“Want some?” I said to Finn, offering him my thumb right near his mouth. “You could lick it off my thumb.”
I watched as his eyes widened, just briefly.
He knew exactly what I was doing.
He clicked his tongue as he hoisted himself up and over the bar again, standing up. “Oh, fuck you, Ori,” he said with a smile, shaking his head. “Where’s my hat?”
“Here you go, man,” Mason said, handing it to him. “You just got a whole lot cooler, Finn.”
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” he protested. “I’ve been cool.”
“I think I like this bar,” Thomas said.
“Come on,” Mason said, tugging on Finn’s shirt the moment he put it back on again. “Come play me in some foosball outside. I’m going to kick your ass.”
“Thanks for the shot, Finn,” I told him.
“My pleasure.”
He walked off, following Mason out onto the back patio behind the bar.
I sat down on one of the barstools beside Thomas and Dani, taking a long breath. “Didn’t expect to start my evening like that.”
“It’s only going to get crazier once you play speed chess with me,” Thomas said. “I’m a god at chess.”
I leaned over toward him, still hot all over from taking the shot.
“You think I’m right, by the way? You think Mason wants to fuck Finn?”
Thomas cocked his head to one side, his eyes glimmering. “I don’t know. Do you want to fuck Finn?”
I laughed a little too forcefully.
Thomas had put me on the spot in a way I hadn’t been expecting.
“Finn couldn’t take me. Even if he wasn’t straight.”
“King me,” I shouted, smacking my piece onto the opposite side of the checkers board.
“What the fuck?” Thomas said, his eyes wide as he threw his hands up in the air. “You lowballed me earlier, Ori. Now you’re sweeping the floor with me.”
“I said I was bad at chess, not checkers,” I told him. “King me.”
We were a few drinks deep into the night now, and I had to admit that game night was exactly as much fun as Danielle said it would be.
The people of Bestens had come out in droves, getting progressively drunker and merrier as the evening went on.
I’d been having a great time with Thomas, too.
“That’s another drink I owe you,” Thomas said a couple of minutes later as we stood up. “Another margarita?”
“Fuck yeah,” I said.
“Let’s take it out to the patio?” Thomas asked.
All night, we’d stayed in the bar, not venturing outside yet. I hadn’t been avoiding Finn, but I had been acutely aware that he’d been out there with Mason all evening.
“You want to head outside?”
“Yeah,” Thomas said. “Foosball sounded fun. Or maybe table tennis.”
I nodded. “Sure. Patio it is.”
Thomas gave me a little salute. “Meet you out there.”
I made my way through the crowd, glancing over at a very heated Jenga game between two women in one of the alcoves. For the first time in weeks I’d actually been able to relax and distract myself a little bit tonight, and it had been desperately needed. Earlier, I’d applied online to a volunteer position at a small art museum a couple towns over, and I’d spent the afternoon dwelling on it, hoping like hell I’d get the spot.
Lately, every waking moment had felt like that.
Worry about my future. Worry about how long I’d have to be in Finn’s guest room, how long I’d have to be working in the diner, how long I’d be in Tennessee.
Worry about the weird sexual tension between me and Finn, now too.
Not that I ever thought that would be possible.
It was nice to give that up for tonight. To enjoy myself, right where I was.
I pushed open the door onto the patio, stepping out under the glowing lights. The Hard Spot had a pretty large patio, with benches and tables throughout and green vines hanging down over the slatted wood awning. It was just as crowded as the inside of the bar, with people playing foosball, table tennis, and darts.
As I looked through the crowd I caught a pair of eyes that made me pause.
Something turned in my stomach. It was Aaron Vander, a guy I hadn’t seen since school.
Not good. Really not good.
I almost had time to do a 180 and make my way back into the bar, but I’d locked eyes with Aaron across the patio and I knew he saw me too.
“Fuck ,” I muttered under my breath, bumping into a woman’s shoulder accidentally as I tried to turn around.
If there was a contender for the worst possible person I could meet in Bestens, Aaron certainly took that prize. Aaron had just thwacked a foosball shot into his opponent’s side goal, and when he saw me I knew what was about to happen.
“Ori-Ori-Oreo!” he bellowed out.
Clearly Aaron was already many beers deep into the night.
The nickname was one of the tame ones from high school. He used to shout it at me, just like that, from across the hallway near the lockers all of the time.
At first Aaron hadn’t been one of the people who actively treated me like shit back in school—far from it. Aaron had actually started out as a friend. When I used to sit on the bleachers and watch Finn’s football practices, Aaron would come up to me sometimes and chat. He was on the team, too, and whenever he had a break, he’d come over and ask how I was doing and ask if I liked his plays during that game.
I’d tell him that I didn’t understand football, and he’d laugh. For a few weeks at the beginning of junior year it seemed like he might want to be friends. He started texting me, here and there, and one day I got a random text from him.
You’re kind of cute, Ori, it had said. You should come over. Would you suck my cock?
At the time, my heart had leapt into the fucking sky.
I didn’t think there were any gay guys other than me at Bestens High, and finding out that Aaron Vander might be closeted and interested in me?
I was so excited I practically ran to his house.
When I got there, it was like a scene from a movie.
Aaron was there. But when he opened the door, a group of his friends were behind him, and they all grinned at me like I was a fucking idiot.
“He actually fucking came over, bro!” one of Aaron’s friends said before all of them fell into laughter.
“Ori, you know I’m not gay ,” Aaron said. “Go suck Finn’s cock or something. Bet he’d let you do it.”
His friends laughed even harder at that one. My cheeks were so hot with embarrassment that I knew they could see that all over my face, too.
“Fuck you,” I muttered to him softly, even though what I really wanted to do was sock him in the jaw.
“I know you want to,” Aaron had said. “Fuckin’ came running over with drool on your chin, Adams.”
I turned on my heel and left, hearing his friends chattering in the background as I walked away. I wanted to disappear. I wanted to teleport out of Bestens and never fucking come back. But I was stuck. Stuck seeing Aaron and his friends in the hall every day after that, trying to push the memory of that day from my mind.
I never told Finn any of what happened.
Apparently, Aaron and the other guys didn’t mention it, either. It was one of the few things I was too embarrassed even to tell Finn, and he went on to play football alongside Aaron until graduation.
Finn would never know what happened that day, if it were up to me.
Looking into Aaron Vander’s eyes tonight felt like getting a dagger straight to my chest. I’d heard that he moved out of Bestens, but clearly he was back, or visiting town, or some fucking thing that meant he was here at the Hard Spot playing foosball right in front of me.
I clenched my jaw, watching as his foosball opponent turned around toward me.
My stomach dropped when I saw who it was. Finn’s pretty hazel eyes were looking right back at me, across the table from Aaron.
Nah.
It wasn’t a dagger in my heart. It was a fucking boulder.
“Hey,” Finn said, his expression changing. But Aaron was already walking over, polishing off a bottle of beer as he approached me.
Don’t say anything bad , I told myself. Finn doesn’t know .
He is never going to know.
But a lot had changed since high school. My filter was practically nonexistent these days, and I didn’t take shit from anybody. I wouldn’t hesitate to take Aaron down a peg or ten.
“Never thought I’d fucking see the day,” Aaron said, coming over and staring at me like I was a science experiment.
His hair was blond as ever. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was red, and I realized he might be more than just a few beers deep. “Little Oreo himself. When the fuck did you get back to Bestens , man? Shit.”
He leaned in and squeezed his arms around me in a strange hug, as if we were old friends rather than… whatever we were.
“Evening, Aaron,” I said. “Been back for a bit.”
“I’m only back for a couple of days, myself,” Aaron said, swaying a little. “Sister’s birthday.”
Thank the fucking lord above.
“Cool,” I said.
“Thought you were like, making movies in California or something now,” he said.
“I worked in an art gallery.”
“Right, right,” he said, nodding slowly.
Finn suddenly appeared beside him, gently pushing his way through the crowd.
Next to Aaron, Finn looked even bigger than usual. He was a couple of inches taller than him.
He frowned at Aaron. “Hey. Let’s go grab a drink inside, man,” Finn said, grabbing Aaron’s arm.
“I want another vodka,” he said.
“I’m thinking water might be better,” Finn said. “Let’s leave Ori alone.”
“He always was like your pet,” Aaron told Finn, laughing in a high-pitched tone. “Literally, Finn, man—like you wanted to walk him around on a leash or something. Oreo! Oreo! Come here, Ori-o!”
Fire ripped through me. “Shut up, Aaron,” I said, before I’d even had time to think. “Finn didn’t treat me like trash, but that doesn’t mean I was his pet.”
“Ooh! Feisty feisty little Oreo!” Aaron said, a dopey, drunk grin on his face.
Finn never really liked Aaron either, but Aaron’s dad had been the football coach at Bestens High, so Finn had always been at least cordial to him. When Aaron used to laugh at me in high school in the halls, though, Finn always told him off. He’d tell Aaron to cut it out, to shut up, to fuck off, but Aaron had never listened.
“He’s right,” Finn told him in a warning tone. “You need to shut up and come get some water.”
“Oh, fuck off with the water,” Aaron said, waving a hand.
“Water will make him less drunk, but it won’t fix what’s wrong in his brain,” I said under my breath. “Get hit with one too many footballs, Aaron?”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Thomas coming out the side door with my margarita.
But right as I turned to walk over to Thomas, I saw Aaron’s hand come out to give me a shove.
I stumbled, my calf awkwardly pushing back against the bench seat of one of the tables behind me. It wasn’t anything like the playful shoves Finn and I gave to each other. Aaron was a drunk oaf, and the shove had been much harder than it needed to be.
Heads all around the patio turned to look at what was going on, now.
“Get the fuck away from me,” I told him as I found my balance. “Touch me again and—”
He didn’t wait for me to finish before leaning in and giving me another quick little push, this time right in the center of my chest.
The instant his hand landed on me, Finn broke into action, moving Aaron away from me.
Aaron stumbled, now, completely off-balance.
Finn had every advantage. He looped his arm around Aaron’s front and quickly took him to the ground.
A small crowd of people gasped, dozens of pairs of eyes turning toward us.
“Oh my God,” I heard Thomas say from beside me, coming over to pull me back a little bit.
Finn knew what he was doing. He got Aaron onto the ground without any harm to his head or his back, making sure to place an arm below where Aaron could really get hurt.
But Aaron was bellowing like an angry animal now, cursing at Finn and occasionally mentioning me, too.
I watched as Aaron took one haphazard swing, trying to reach out and sucker punch the edge of my leg. Finn moved just in time, blocking it and taking the punch to his own arm instead.
My heart was running at about a million beats a minute. Thomas had put down the drink and had one arm around me, pulling me close.
“No fuckin’ way,” I heard a deep voice from the patio door. Kane came out a moment later, a stern look on his face. “No fights in my bar. Get him the hell out of here, now. Couple of water bottles on the house, but you can’t stay here.”
“Dumb fucks ,” Aaron mumbled as Finn finally let him go. I saw a tiny trickle of blood from a place on Finn’s arm where Aaron’s watch must have clipped his skin. Both of them stood up, and Kane and Finn each took one of Aaron’s arms, leading him around the outer edge of the building toward the front.
“I’ll call a taxi,” Kane said.
“Could call a ride from the police instead,” I heard Finn say. “You got him from here?”
“Got him,” Kane told him.
Finn turned around immediately and looked back at me. His eyes glanced from my face, down to my shoulders where Thomas had his arm around me, and back again.
A few strangers came up to me, too. They said Aaron was acting like an idiot all night on the patio and they were glad to see I was okay.
“Are you okay?” Thomas was asking me, rubbing my back as Finn approached us again.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Who cares about me , though? Finn, why did you do that?”
As he came up I saw the small amount of blood on his arm. I took off my hoodie and pressed it to his arm.
“Whoa, whoa,” Finn said, looking down. “Don’t ruin your white hoodie for this.”
My heart felt like it was lodged somewhere up high in my chest.
Finn was hurt because of me. Guilt and shame welled up inside me, just like they always used to when he would put his social reputation—and his body —on the line, just to do things for me.
I hated feeling like I had to be protected, but Finn always stepped in.
I didn’t know why I thought it would be any different now.
“Why did you do that?” I repeated, feeling like I was watching this from somewhere outside myself.
“I don’t know,” Finn said. “My body just… went for it. I don’t think I could watch anyone try to fuck with you and not step in. Shit, Ori, this hoodie is screwed up now. I’ll get you a new one.”
I puffed out a laugh despite everything. Finn was still worried about my hoodie when he’d just tackled a guy to the ground for me.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Thomas told me.
Finn looked between the two of us again.
“Thank you, Finn. Jesus,” Thomas said. “I felt like I was watching a horror movie when I came back out here. One minute I’m trying to show Ori a good time and take him on a date, and the next thing I know he’s about to get punched. You’re a hero.”
Hearing those words come out of Thomas’ mouth was more of a shock than Aaron trying to punch me.
A date?
Thomas and I were on a date?
Fuck, I had been completely clueless.
Finn’s expression had changed, too. Even though he’d just broken up a bar fight, he practically looked embarrassed now, like he was intruding on me and Thomas.
“Right, right,” Finn said, the slashes of pink appearing on his cheekbones again. “You two were here just trying to have a good time, and…”
He trailed off, looking down at his wounded arm rather than making eye contact with either of us.
Finn finally looked back up at me.
I wanted to talk to him about so many things in that moment.
He didn’t even know about my history with Aaron. I could see a whole world of questions behind his eyes, too.
“You sure you’re okay, Ori?” Finn asked.
I swallowed. “I’m a little out of it now,” I admitted. “Had a few margaritas already, and I was a little tipsy and spacey before Aaron got in my face.”
“You handled yourself really well,” Finn said. “I was kind of impressed.”
“Fuck that guy,” I said, shaking my head. “I still want to punch him as much as I did back in high school, but I was actually close to doing it tonight.”
“Ori, I wasn’t playing the foosball game with him,” Finn said. “Mason went to grab a drink, then Aaron came up and just started taking random shots on our table. I couldn’t get him to fuck off. I don’t hang out with that guy—”
I held up a hand, stopping him. “You can do what you want, Finn,” I said. “I’d never try to tell you who you couldn’t play a round of foosball with.”
His expression was serious. “Well, I wouldn’t with him. Ever. Guy always gave me bad vibes, anyway.”
My heart did a little flip in my chest.
Fuck me. The look in Finn’s eyes right now was so soulful that I never would have known he’d been in a fight just five minutes ago.
Finn always cared about me.
I was pretty sure Finn would still step in front of a moving train for me, no matter how distant I’d been when I was back in Los Angeles.
I felt like I didn’t deserve it. Like I’d been off on my own, trying to be independent for so long, putting thousands of miles between us.
I really had been shutting him out.
Maybe because it was easier than missing him.
My throat suddenly felt tight. I took a step back, sitting down on the bench table behind me.
“You okay?” Thomas asked, attentive to me.
“I, uh, need a breather.”
Thomas nodded. “I’m going to go get you some water. Water and some food and painkillers, if one of the bartenders can grab some. Be right back.” He rushed inside, disappearing behind the patio door.
Everything was so different now.
Bestens was so different.
When I was a teenager, could I have imagined this? My best friend defending me, but also everybody else being on my side, too? Finn cared, of course. But also, Thomas cared. Kane did, too. Even the random people on the patio were understanding.
The pain of the past had been ripped open all at once, but… I didn’t feel raw, or scared.
I didn’t instantly want to flee town.
I felt grateful. Like most of the people around me were actually good . And that was more cathartic than anything.
Finn sat down next to me, and the moment I felt the side of his body touch the side of mine, a tear broke off down my cheek.
“Whoa, whoa,” Finn said, his brow furrowing. “You’re okay, Ori.”
“Fuck,” I said. I used the heel of my palm to wipe away the stray tear, pulling in a breath.
It was like too many things had just happened at once.
I hadn’t had half as much confidence back in the day as I did now. I’d felt so trapped back then, and now I felt free. I had so much sorrow for my teenage self, when I truly thought I had no one on my side.
Except Finn, before we’d slowly grown apart.
“Thank you,” I whispered to him now.
I swore he looked at me with his whole soul.
“It’s nothing,” he said.
I was a little shaky as I pulled in a deep breath. “Sometimes I wish I knew what I was doing.”
“You’re doing great,” Finn assured me. “Even if you think you’re lost.”
I bit my lower lip. “And I wish I’d known what I was doing,” I said, “the years I wasn’t there for you. When I was gone.”
He puffed out a breath, waving me off. “I was fine. You know how it goes. I needed to grow up, too.”
I held his gaze. “I don’t deserve you, you know.”
He shook his head. He was silent for a moment, then leaned in, pressing a slow kiss to my forehead.
Finn had never done anything like that before. He pulled back, inches away from my face. He hung there for a moment, with a question in his eyes.
Something crackled between us.
And then Finn leaned in and pressed a kiss to my lips.
My heart lurched right back up to my throat. It was as if the rest of the world disappeared around me. All I felt was him, his lips hot against mine, and his hand, gripping the top of my thigh.
You can’t kiss me , I thought, even though I wasn’t pulling away. What the hell are you doing?
My body flooded with heat, melting against him.
My cock responded almost instantly. The kiss was light at first, but hungrier a moment later, his mouth opening to mine in desperation. Like he was quickly taking something forbidden before I really did disappear.
What. The. Fuck.
His hand moved up my thigh and as we broke off for a breath, I could feel the slickness on my lips. I was dizzy, like I’d just spun into some alternate universe.
“Don’t ever get down on yourself for leaving town, Ori,” he said in a low voice. His eyes were half-lidded, and he finally pulled his hand away from my thigh. “You needed to do it. I was proud of you. I am proud of you.”
“You just kissed me.”
“I know.”
“You just fucking kissed me.”
He shrugged a shoulder. “You looked like you needed it.”
I swallowed. “You really are too nice to me.”
“I know that, too.”
We both let out a small laugh, the real world coming back a little bit.
“Thank you,” I said softly. “For… that. And for saving my life, or whatever.”
“Saving your life? Quit being dramatic. Just helping make that prick get out of your face. But you know how to save your own ass, Ori.”
I glanced over toward the bar doors, then back at Finn. “Tell me the truth about something.”
“Anything.”
“Did… did you just want to kiss me because Thomas said we were on a date?”
Finn looked off toward the other side of the patio, breaking eye contact with me. “Oh, come on,” he protested.
“Did you get possessive, Finn?” I asked him, in a slightly teasing tone. “You want to make sure you claim me before he comes back outside? Big ol’ cowboy ego, much?”
I’d been mostly joking, but the look on Finn’s face was serious.
Suddenly it was as if there were miles and miles between us again—but this time, something about it was different. What the hell was going on in his mind? Why did his eyes look wild when I mentioned Thomas?
I had a thousand questions.
But the patio doors opened a moment later and Thomas came out, smiling at us. “I’ve got you a platter of good stuff,” he said. He was carrying a tray of water glasses, ibuprofen pills, and sliced apples and oranges. “The cure to any fucked-up bar fight, am I right?”