Gayle has to get on his train and travel back home before his kid gets home from school which means no day drinking for him. Maki is on a strict diet, especially now that the season has started again.
“What is that?” I ask, nodding at Maki’s drink.
“She said it was a ‘mocktail’,” he says, complete with little air quotes with his fingers. “It tastes like a fancy smoothie. I like it.”
“Why does it come with a little umbrella?”
Maki picks it up, turning it every which way before finally shrugging. “I have no idea. This wouldn’t help if it were raining.”
“What game should we try first?” Kei asks, wrapping his free hand around my waist. My stomach swoops at the sensation, at the visual representation of being claimed by Kei. There’s no question about it, we’re heretogether.
Normally, something like that would make my hackles rise. I don’t like being claimed. I’m an independent person. I don’t like the idea of someone having power over me.
Right now, it doesn’t feel like that. It doesn’t feel like Kei is trying to chase other people away from me. It feels like he just craves being close.
I don’t seem to mind that.
“How are you at pop-a-shot?”
“Terrible.”
“Perfect. Let’s start there.”
We go to a kiosk, getting a card filled with credits we can use on all the arcade games. Then we head over to the pop-a-shot area. I’m not the best but that’s okay, so long as I’m better than Kei.
There are little drink slots for our drinks on the side of the machine and out of the way. They really thought of everything for this place, didn’t they?
I lean my hip against the side, looking at Kei. I let my eyes wander up and down his body, biting my bottom lip.
“Jesus,” he hisses out, looking around. When he sees we’re pretty secluded from anyone else, Kei murmurs, “stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you wanna bend me over this machine and have your way with me.”
“But that’s exactly what I want,” I tell him with a shrug. “I was thinking, let’s make this game more interesting. Winner gets a blowjob when we go back to my place tonight.”
Kei runs a hand through his hair, looking away. The tips of his ears are pink. When his eyes meet mine again, there’s a steeliness to them. He’s determined to saysomethingso I wait, listening.
“Usually, I would say yes to that in a heartbeat,” he says softly, taking a step closer. Everything else around us fades away.
“What’s stopping you?”
“I want this to be different,” Kei confesses softly. “Normally, I sleep with someone and then never see them again. I wantourrelationship to be different than that.”
“Okay,” I say slowly, staring into Kei’s eyes. “So you don’t want to sleep with me again?”
“No, that’s not it. I do. I really, really want to,” he says, grabbing my wrist and holding on tight. His thumb runs over my pulse point. “I want to take things a little slower. I want us to fuck emotionally before we fuck physically again.”
I can’t help but burst out into laughter. “Did you just say ‘fuck emotionally’? Really?”
“Fuck off, Shiloh! I’m beingvulnerablehere!”
“Oh my gods. You’re kind of adorable, you know that? Fuck.”
“I am going to leave you here,” Kei says through clenched teeth, turning around like he’s about to walk away. Too bad he’s holding my hand right now. I yank him back.
“You’re not going anywhere,” I say, still grinning. Then I lean up and steal a quick kiss. “Fine, we’ll do this your way. We’ll go nice and slow before we experience coitus together once more.”
