Chapter 13
Duffy
“This isn’t necessary.”
“Sure it is,” Connor said, walking beside me down the city street. “And it gives me the chance to walk off my buzz before I go home.”
“Well, thank you.” Since I’d come straight from work and met Connor at the game, I had to walk back to the office, where my car was sitting in the parking garage. I was going to Uber home since I’d had some drinks, but I needed to grab my laptop and purse from my back seat before I could go.
And Connor was committed to being my security guard, apparently.
“By the way, a friend texted me during the game that apparently there are photos of us—and Dale—from this morning that have popped up on the internet,” he said, glancing over at me like he was trying to gauge my reaction.
“Really?” His life was so surreal. “I didn’t see anyone with a phone out—did you?”
“No, but I wasn’t looking,” he said. “I was way too into your cat to see anything else.”
“Dale is such an ass to treat you so well,” I said with an eye roll. “The guy claws my back anytime I take too long getting out of bed and preparing his meal—and I forgive him for this on a daily basis—yet all you do is plop your big ass in a chair and he gives you unconditional love.”
“Did you just call my ass big?” he said, giving me an overdramatic look of hurt. “Do you think I have a badonkadonk?”
“Please don’t use that word.”
“Are you or are you not throwing junk in my trunk, Duffy?”
“I am not,” I said, obsessed with the way he was so stupidly easy to be around. “My unfortunate usage of the term ‘big ass’ was simply referencing your overall size, as in, ‘That giant walked his big ass over to the car and got in.’ It had nothing to do with your, um, posterior.”
“Oh. Good,” he said. “And Dale is right to love me unconditionally because my big ass is the shit.”
“Y’know, if the people on TikTok who are obsessed with your appearance knew how unserious you are, it might just ruin everything for them.”
“So now you’re saying my personality makes me ugly. Such a ballbuster.”
“Yes, I am, you eyeball-assaulting troll,” I said dryly.
The rest of the walk was relaxed and fun, and I was disappointed when we reached the parking garage. He insisted on walking me all the way to my car, and then he insisted on waiting until my Uber arrived.
I found myself feeling nervous because he was such a gentleman and suddenly this felt a little date-like. Which was good, right? Although to be fair, every time I’d been friend-zoned in the past, it’d shocked the hell out of me and I’d absolutely not seen it coming.
So my ability to recognize what the hell was going on was not to be trusted.
“So now that we’re down to mere minutes,” he said as I checked the app and saw my driver was four minutes away, “I have to ask. Did tonight improve my odds of getting you to go on an actual date with me?”
I raised my eyes from my phone to his face, and God, the way he was looking at me.
How could he be looking at me like that?
I was leaning on my car, my back against the passenger door, and he was watching me like he was into me, like he really wanted me to reconsider.
“Oh, it definitely didn’t hurt,” I managed, my throat incredibly dry all of a sudden.
I wasn’t in the zone yet, praise Jesus.
“It was the sexy kiss cam action, wasn’t it? I seduced you, admit it.”
“Honestly, I really appreciated your quick thinking,” I admitted, wondering what it would be like to actually kiss him.
“Oh, it was entirely selfish,” he said, stepping a little closer.
Suddenly his face was so close, just above mine, and I found it hard to breathe. Long, dark lashes, blue eyes that were lighter than I’d thought; God, he was even more beautiful mere centimeters from me.
“Selfish?” I asked, my voice embarrassingly soft.
“Selfish because I wasn’t willing to publicly give away our first kiss,” he said, his voice deep and quiet as the subtle scent of his cologne drugged me. “Not if it’s even a remote possibility.”
“Oh,” I managed, feeling like I was underwater.
“So it’s kind of linked to my first question,” he said, moving just the tiniest bit, so that his mouth was very close to mine.
His hands moved to the roof of my car, so he was almost caging me between the vehicle and his body, and my traitorous body felt a thrill when he leaned in even closer and said beside my ear, “What are your thoughts on my chances?”
“Good, I think they’re so good,” I breathed out, struggling to keep my eyes open because his mouth was so close to my neck and he smelled intoxicating. “So much potential.”
“On which?” he asked, and my toes curled inside my shoes at the way his voice dropped even deeper and his breath tickled my neck.
Is he about to kiss my neck?
“Both,” I said, unsure when my hand had landed on the back of his neck or how my head came to be tilted the tiniest bit to allow access. “Definitely both.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear,” he said quietly.
Then he straightened back up.
And gave me a sexy, challenging grin.
I blinked, feeling dazed, like I’d missed something. He was smiling down at me like he’d just proved a point. Scored a touchdown.
Go back to where you were before, the whole neck thing!
“I mean, I can’t kiss you now, tonight, when this isn’t a real date,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “So we should probably get that scheduled soon so we can proceed, don’t you think?”
Connor Cunningham, you fucking tease.
I gave my head a shake, almost dizzy with the realization that it was happening. Even after my initial failure to respond honestly about wanting to see him again, he was asking me out on a very more-than-friends date.
“I think you might be onto something.”