Her gaze eased down his face, measuring his words and light tone against the fall in his smirk. “And yet we both smoke with each other.” Miya settled back beside him, her arm grazing his. Time to push more. “I don't suppose you're going to finally kiss me, are you?”
Lance coughed, smoke sputtering from his mouth and nose.
“Seriously?” Miya twisted onto her knees and stole the joint from him. “I set you up so well, and you're falling flat on your face?”
A furtive glance at her. “Maybe I don't want to kiss you.”
Her shoulders shook when she laughed. “I can tell when someone wants to kiss me.”
Even though Miya didn't want to manipulate a nice person, she needed to produce results for the captain. So, she forced her teasing smile to fall. “Oh.”
Worry tensed his voice. “Oh? What does oh mean?”
Now she smiled fully without meeting his eyes, the perfect touch for pretending to mask insecurity. “Nothing. I was teasing.”
Lance pursued, exactly as she hoped. Facing her, he leaned closer. “Miya, I didn't mean that. If you think it has anything to do with—”
“Don't. Seriously.”
Guilt laced his words. “I said maybe I didn't want to because I was being defensive. And I was defensive because I'll have a heart attack and die right here if I kiss you.” He pointed to the ground. “Right in this spot. Then you'd have no one to smoke with, and you'd be traumatized. I can't do that to you.”
Miya didn't mean to, but she laughed. Actually laughed. “What the hell are you talking about?” Was he really like this? It didn't seem like an act.
He nodded, his own laugh teasing. “I'm only human. Besides, I have a move, and this is not it.”
Miya crossed one ankle over the other, her heel grazing his calf. “A move? Tell me everything.”
A hint of worry still flickered in his eyes. He didn't want to make her feel ashamed of her mark, did he? But his tone sounded lighter. “It starts by being friends for a long time. Some may say a pathetic amount of time, really.”
“Should I be taking notes?” she asked.
“Then, I work up the courage. This is also a long process.”
Her brows pinched. “I don't think you can call this a move, Lance.”
He shook his head, waving her off. “I hint harder and harder until I'm positive she's interested. You know, so I don't risk an awkward moment… Or pressure her with my months, years, of feelings.”
Miya listened, unable to stop, because she couldn't remember the last time she'd encountered so much innocence in a man. Sure, she knew men like that existed. They weren't her clients, though, nor her targets.
“Eventually, the moment comes when I know for sure she wants me to kiss her.” That easy grin of his brightened his dark eyes. “And then…”
Miya groaned. “I'll be the one to die right in this exact spot if you don't tell me. This is weirdly suspenseful.”
Lance leaned closer, whispering his secret move. “I ask if I can kiss her.”
A howl burst from deep within Miya's gut. “Wait—”
“If she says yes—”
“Stop it, Lance—”
“Then I do it. I kiss her.”
“That's your move?”
“All of those things I spent a while explaining? Yeah.” He nodded. “That's my move.”
A twinge of fear crept into the laughter as she wondered if he accidentally wandered into the middle of the Phaedra's war. Lance, this man who couldn't fake being so sweet and awkward and innocent. Even she didn't act that well.
