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I love you. The words were on the tip of my tongue. The fact that he’d obviously put thought into this, even getting advice from Noah…and now here he was, suddenly unsure about whether I’d like what he’d planned for our date.
Reaching out and gripping his arm, I pulled him towards the building, stopping when I was touching the grey stone wall. Now that we weren’t at risk of being jostled by the throngs of tourists, I turned to face him fully. “Ander. It’s more than okay. It’s amazing. And just so you know, I would’ve been happy whatever we did.”
Relief entered his gaze as he wrapped his arms around me. “Except for going to the London Dungeon.”
“Except for that,” I agreed, hugging him back and winding my arms around his neck. Butterflies were going crazy inside me.
His lips skimmed over my cheek, and then he angled his head to my ear. “Do— Fucking hell, E! Your ear is like a fucking ice cube.”
Great, I really was at risk of my ears freezing off, after all. “Yeah, I know. But I wanted to look nice for you, so I used product in my hair. I couldn’t wear a hat.”
“Bloody hell, you look hot as fuck without doing anything. It’s not worth the risk of frostbite.” His hands came up to cover both of my ears, and then he began rubbing them with his gloved fingers. “You really did that for me?”
“It’s a date, isn’t it? I wanted to make an effort.”
He pressed a soft kiss to my lips, and I gasped because it felt so natural and effortless and completely unexpected in the best way. “Believe me when I say that your effort is very much appreciated.” His voice lowered, taking on a husky tone. “I’ll show you how much I appreciate it later. What’s your opinion on sex at the end of a first date?”
I pretended to think about it while desperately trying to stop my cock from hardening at the thought of what we might end up doing later. “Hmm. I’m not sure. Ask me again at the end of the date, and I’ll let you know.”
He smirked at me. “I won’t need to ask. You’ll be begging.” Before I could reply, he was tugging me inside the aquarium entrance. As we stood in the queue, he leaned into me and whispered too low for anyone else to hear, “Thinking of you begging for my dick gave me a boner.”
“Ander!”
Every. Single. Person in the aquarium foyer turned to look at us as my shout echoed around the space. My ears had been frozen, but now they were burning, as was my entire face.
“Hey, it’s okay.” Ander pulled me into him, wrapping an arm around me, and I turned my face into his neck to hide. His shoulders were shaking as he tried to bite back his laughter, and I pinched his side in warning. “All you did was screech my name. On the list of embarrassing shit that could happen…that doesn’t even make it onto the list.”
His words calmed me down, and by the time we’d entered the main aquarium, I was relaxed enough to look around and enjoy the fact that I was here with Ander. On a date. Our first date.
“Look at that. It’s so cute.” I peered into a little tank containing a tiny seahorse, watching it move around in the water.
“You’reso cute.” Ander smiled at me. “Take your gloves off so we can do the whole date thing and hold hands.”
“You really want to do that?” I stared at him.
“Yeah, of course I do. I’m committed. This is a date, so we have to do date things. Isn’t that how it works?”
“I think we can do what we want. But that, um, yeah. That might be nice.” In case he changed his mind, I ripped off my gloves and shoved them in my coat pockets and then reached for his hands, tugging off his gloves while he grinned at me with amusement dancing in his hazel eyes.
When his gloves were safely stowed, I reached for his hand and threaded my fingers through his.
We were holding hands.
And throughout our entire journey through the aquarium, he didn’t let go of me, not even once.
The icing on the cake was when we left the aquarium just as dusk was falling and walked across Westminster Bridge to the north side where the restaurant was. Ander made me stop by one of the ornate black lampposts next to the river, the London Eye across from where we were standing. Strings of lights went from one lamppost to the next, and even though it wasn’t yet dark, they were lit up, and they looked beautiful.
“Wait there,” Ander told me. Leaving me for a moment, he jogged over to a couple who were walking alongside the river, arm in arm. He said something to them before gesturing to me, and they both nodded, smiling.
When he came back to me, I found out that he’d asked the couple to take a photo of us, and he’d told them he’d do the same for them in return. Handing his phone over, he made us do a few different poses before turning to face me. His gaze held mine as everything else faded away and it was just me and him. I wanted to freeze the moment because it was so fucking perfect.
“I’ll give you copies of the photos,” he murmured, stepping even closer, and before I knew it, I was leaning forwards and pressing a light kiss to his lips. When I drew back, he was smiling widely with a flush to his cheeks, his eyes lit up.
Every time I thought I couldn’t possibly fall for him any further, I was proven wrong.
* * *
“I’m too full.” Ander rubbed his stomach, groaning. “I’m gonna have to go extra hard at the gym to burn all this off.”
