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God, why did Nova have to be like this? Why couldn’t he just pin Ben to the chair and kiss him?
Clearing his throat, Ben took out his phone and opened the app. “Tomorrow is Beau. His profile says he works with kids.”
Nova bit his lip for a second. “That’s kind of great, isn’t it?”
Ben shrugged. “If you like kids. Which I’m pretty ambivalent about.” He tucked his phone back into his pocket and returned his hand to Nova’s. “I’m going to be here at seven, and I’m going to sit at my table and get my drink and wait for him to do something colossally awful so you can sweep me off my feet and remind us both that this idea is…”
“Worth it,” Nova said, cutting him off. “Because it’ll make what we’re going to do after so much better.”
Ben groaned and bowed his head before shoving his phone at Nova. “Put your number in. I’ll do this, but I need to know I can reach you the second this all ends.”
Nova’s warm fingers brushed over Ben’s as he did as he was told, and then he pressed the phone back into Ben’s grasp. “What now?”
Ben looked up and hated himself for his next words. “I should go. The longer I stay here, the more it’s testing my resolve to give you what you need.”
Nova nodded, then pushed to his feet and backed up. “Tomorrow?”
“Yes,” Ben said. He gave him a slow, heated look, then headed out of the office and hurried toward the front doors.
His feet hit the gravel, crunching along, and he was halfway to his car when he heard footsteps following him. Panic erupted in his gut, and he spun, expecting to see Charlie there ready to beat the shit out of him for running off, but instead, he came face-to-face with Nova once more.
He was pink in the cheeks and not wearing enough for the weather, and his hands were so hot as they gripped Ben by the face and backed him up against the trunk of his car.
“One more thing,” Nova murmured.
“Okay.”
His head leaned in, and then their lips brushed together, a featherlight touch. Ben lost all semblance of reality. “A kiss. Just one kiss. You’ve had five dates and no kissing, and I can’t live with that. Please say yes.”
“Yes,” Ben said, like he was capable of answering any other way.
Nova grinned, then leaned in and held him in a long, hot, careful press of lips against lips. It was the greatest moment of Ben’s life, and when Nova stepped back, he felt the space between them like a canyon. “Tomorrow,” Nova said.
“And then the night after that,” Ben answered.
Nova’s grin lit up his face. “Then one more until you’re mine.”
Ben’s heart threatened to beat out of his rib cage, and he wondered how he could possibly be so despondent and so happy all at the same time. He watched as Nova took three steps away, and then he lunged without thinking. His fingers tangled in the back of Nova’s shirt, tugging hard, and a warm body fell into his arms.
“What—” Nova managed to get out, but Ben chose that moment to steal the rest of Nova’s words with soft lips and warm tongue. Nova’s hands flailed for a moment, and then they pushed into Ben’s hair as the kiss deepened.
Their bodies crashed into the side of Ben’s car, and it was the dull thud that ripped Ben back to reality. He broke the kiss with a series of small, soft pecks, panting gently against Nova’s mouth.
“Sorry,” he whispered.
Nova brought a hand down to cup his cheek, and he drew Ben’s gaze up. “Don’t you dare.”
Ben couldn’t help a small laugh. “I’m not really. I just felt like it was the right thing to say.”
Taking a deep breath, Nova leaned forward and knocked their foreheads together, and Ben breathed in deeply, basking in the warmth of him. “Tomorrow,” Nova said one more time.
This time, when he turned to walk away, Ben let him go.
twelve
“This is ridiculous,”Ben told himself, pacing back and forth. He was in his living room instead of his home office, chanukiah glowing in the window. His gaze fixed on the center candle, the little blue flame in the middle giving him a sharp retina burn.
He didn’t want to leave the house. Leaving the house meant being near Nova but not being allowed to touch. It meant sitting across from some other person he wanted nothing to do with. Beau could be the perfect man in literally every way, but Ben’s heart had already been captured by someone else, and no one would ever be able to compare.
