“Alyssa let me in. I brought you this.” Leo held out an iced vanilla latte from Ackerson’s.
I chuckled. “This is becoming a habit. Pretty soon I’ll expect you to greet me for our quickies with a coffee.”
“That can be arranged,” he said, running a hand over his jaw as I took the coffee from him. “You don’t seem like a girl who’d want flowers, and I know this is maybe-kind-of-not-really a date, but also it feels a little bit like one? I didn’t want to show up empty handed.”
My heart fluttered. He thought it felt like a date too.But does he think that’s a good thing or a bad thing?I forced myself not to think any more about it before this got weird.
“I really appreciate the gesture. And I’ll take iced lattes over flowers every time,” I said. “Not that I expect there to be another time,” I added in a rush.
His smile dipped slightly and he held out his hand for me. “Are you ready?”
“Apparently, I am,” I said. “Since you like my hair like this.”
He laughed and pulled me against him, shoving his nose into my hair and pressing his lips to my neck. “I fucking love your hair like this.” He inhaled deeply. “I think I want to drown in a bottle of this shampoo.”
I laughed and held his hand as we walked into the living room where Alyssa sat watching us instead of the show she’d been binging. “You two look cozy,” she cooed.
“Goodnight, Lys.”
“Will you be back tonight? I’m not sure what the evening entails,” she yelled as we walked to the main door. “As your roommate, I need to know under what circumstances to activate a search party.”
“I’ll be home later, Alyssa.”
Leo dropped my hand and pulled the door open. A quick glance at his face and the look of disappointment made me wonder if I’d said the wrong thing, but when he saw my eyes on him, he forced a smile and put his hand on the small of my back, saying goodbye to Alyssa as if he was totally fine.
The concert was unbelievable.I belted my heart out to every song, completely caught up in the high of being at a live rock show. I’d jumped in place during “I Wanna Be Your Slave” and swayed in Leo’s arms during “If Not For You” and “The Loneliest.” I’d screamed, face flushed, singing along to “Baby Said” and “Beggin’” while Leo had made sexy eyes at me, as if he knew I was thinking about him whenever the songs were about sex. And when they’d played “Timezone,”Leo whispered in my ear that the song could have been written about us. My chest clenched at the notion that he thought of us when he heard the song about two people in love, missing each other, while seven-thousand miles apart. It was a stark reminder of the inevitable future we’d face if we became anything other than friends with benefits.
The erection he’d pressed into my back all night kept me on the cusp of arousal, making me feel like we were in our own intimate bubble. I’d kept my ass pressed against him as much as possible. The pit was packed, so it was either be pressed against him or a stranger, and I very much liked the way it felt having him nestled in the crack of my ass with his arms around my waist and his chin on my shoulder all the while knowing that in a room full of people, at a show he was enjoying just as much as I was, his body still craved mine.
The lights turned on at the end of the show, making everything feel more real. The intimacy of how we’d just spent the last few hours hit me harder than I’d expected. Leo took friends with benefits to a whole new level, and I was afraid my heart was going to get confused if I wasn’t careful. Listening to someone sing romantic love songs while pressed against a man you could easily fall for had that effect. I’d enjoyed sharing this experience with him, especially after another dinner of easyconversation and laughter. He stepped back slowly, seemingly reluctant to remove his hands from around my waist and I turned around to face him.
“Thank you,” I said. “They were amazing.”
He smiled, looking at the joy on my face. “They always put on a really good show. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
“How many times have you seen them?” I asked, in awe that it was no big deal for him. I guessed Boston probably hosted a lot more concert tours than my little island.
He shrugged. “Twice, I think? Aunt Sloane and I go to a lot of concerts. But as good as the other shows were, this is by far the most fun I’ve ever had at a concert.”
I reached for his hand and turned him around so that he walked slightly in front of me, following the crowd to the exit. “I’m not ready for tonight to be over,” I mumbled quietly, afraid he’d think I was trying to prolong our evening as if it were a date—which it was, in my head. But I didn’t want him to know that. We hadn’t felt like just friends with benefits during that show, and I liked how we’d felt. I wanted a little more of that before we went back to our arrangement.
His head snapped around and he smiled. “I have an idea. When was the last time you went ice-skating, Hawaii?”
I snorted. “Did you honestly just ask that question and use my nickname in the same sentence. Think about it, Leo. I’veneverbeen ice-skating.”
“What?” he asked, stopping in his tracks. “You’ve never been ice-skating? At all?”
“Just how many rinks do you think we have on the tropical island where I was raised?” I asked with a laugh.
“Wow, this is hard to wrap my head around,” he said, shaking off the shock and pulling me toward the exit. “No ice-skating rinks?”
I laughed at his inability to accept reality. “I think we have one on all of Oahu. It’s really not a thing there like it is here.”
“Well then we’re definitely going now.”
“Right now?” I asked, looking at my phone. “It’s almost midnight.”
We made our way out into the cool air and Leo tossed an arm around my shoulder, immediately providing me with warmth I hadn’t asked for but definitely needed. “Then we’ll be the only ones there.”
