My hand dragged along my jaw again, trying to wipe the expression off before it gave me away completely. “I’m not?—”
“Archibald.” He leaned forward, elbows braced on the table. “You look like you’ve been electrocuted. Which is concerning, because the last time I saw you was last night when you shuffled to your room after a long afternoon with Rothwe—ohmygod.”
I groaned.
Rhys’s mouth dropped open. “No.”
My fingers lifted before I could stop them, brushing over my mouth like I was checking if it had actually happened—like I might still find him there if I pressed hard enough.
Rhys tracked it.Of coursehe did.
“No, no, no.” Blue eyes sparked with something feral. “Don’t you dare touch your lips like that unless you have something to confess.”
“I kissed him.”
Rhys’s shoulders locked mid-shift, the motion cutting off so abruptly the booth creaked under him. His fingers stilled where they’d been drumming against the table, curling slowly like his body needed a second to catch up with what he’d just heard.
“Oh, I knew it,” he breathed, dragging it out like he’d been waiting his whole life for this exact moment. “Itoldyou so. Oh my God, I’m never letting you forget this.”
“Please don’t make it a whole thing.”
“It’s already a whole thing,” he shot back. “You are glowing. You look like you just discovered serotonin for the first time.”
I huffed out another laugh, shaking my head, but the smile wouldn’t go away. It kept pulling at my mouth.
“It wasn’t—” I started, then stopped, because there wasn’t a version of this that didn’t sound insane. “It wasn’t just a kiss.”
Rhys leaned in immediately. “Oh, Iknowit wasn’t just a kiss. That man does not strike me as a ‘just a kiss’ kind of guy.”
No.
Not even close.
My thighs pressed together under the table before I could stop, doing nothing to take the edge off. It only sharpened it, dragged the memory tighter through my body.
My gaze dropped, thumb tracing a worn groove in the table as everything replayed.
“My phone kept going off. I just… shoved it in my bag and forgot about it. We were supposed to be working.” I cleared my throat. “Wedidwork. For hours.”
The desk was full of drafts and notes—his handwriting cutting through the margins while mine followed behind, guidedfrom one point to the next like everything was exactly as it should be.
Like he hadn’t just kissed me.
Like his hands weren’t still settling on me whenever I drifted too far from where he wanted me.
His hands acted as a steady correction whenever I drifted too far.
Just a brief press at the back of my neck when my thoughts started to scatter. Fingers brushing my shoulder when I leaned too far over the desk.
“He ordered dinner,” I said. “Sat there and watched until I ate every bite.”
Rhys let out a low huff. “Good.”
“He didn’t let me disappear. Not once.”
Silence stretched across the table. When I looked up, the edge of Rhys’s expression had shifted, something more careful settling in where the teasing had been.
“You really like him.”
