Asiya was my best friend. She was the one I confided in. She was the first person I ran to when I needed someone to talk to.
She knew everything about me.
Fuck. She kneweverythingaboutme.
“Is that so?” Eden sounded calm, though there was this unusual underlying edge that caused me to shiver.
I looked at his face, surprised when I realized the stare he held on Asiya. The way his eyes narrowed, the vein in his neck almost popping.
“I’m surprised to hear you say that about Alana. She’s always spoken so highly of you,” he added.
We’d barely talked about her. My friendship with her did not concern Eden.
“I think you should go,” I blurted out before Asiya had the chance to reply. I laid my hand on his chest, urging him to leave.
At first, I thought he was going to comply, but I should’ve known better by now.
Instead of leaving, Eden covered my hand with his own, his eyes finding mine at the same time.
“Getting rid of me so soon?” The harsh edge in his voice was gone, replaced by the softness he always used on me.
“Yeah.”
He brought his free hand to my neck, swiping his thumb over the mark he left behind. A smirk pulled at the corner of his lips. “Hm… Alright. Under one condition.”
I chuckled. He always had to be difficult. “That would be?”
Eden lifted my face with one finger at the same time as he leaned down. “I need a kiss first.”
“Of course you do.”
However, instead of kissing me like I expected, he whispered, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Promise you’re not lying?”
The wordsI promisewere on the tip of my tongue, but they refused to get past my lips. “We’ll talk later.”
He cupped my face with both of his hands, his thumbs stroking my skin ever so softly. “Okay. Text me when you’re done with classes.”
“I will.”
Eden pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead before eventually laying his lips on mine, kissing me as if he hadn’t kissed me in months.
He lingered for a moment, and I was sure he would’ve kissed me again if I hadn’t pulled away.
As soon as my eyes opened, my gaze fell on his lips, which were now covered with my lip gloss. I suppose he was lucky that it was a clear one, so it looked more like a heavy dose of chapstick than an actual lip gloss.
Still, I had a hard time containing my laughter as I stroked a finger underneath my bottom lip to remove any possible smudges.
“You should probably wipe that off before going back to your friends,” I told him, about to reach up to do the job for him, but Eden shook his head.
He rubbed his lips together, spreading the lip gloss around before his tongue darted out by barely a millimeter. “It doesn’t even taste like anything.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll start wearing scented lip gloss. Would you prefer that?”
Eden chuckled, and God, that stupid sound made me weak. It was so genuine, so deep and sexy that I—wow.
