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“Yes.” Feeling my worries beginning to overpower my focus, I think of something lighter to talk about. Knight comes to mind. “So, um… in happier news, I heard you’re going to be an uncle. Congratulations.”
He chuckles. “Thanks, I think.”
“Aren’t you excited to be an uncle?”
“I’m happier for Knight to be the brother with the kids, not me.”
That surprises me. He’s never spoken like that before about kids. I just assumed he’d wanted them. “You don’t want kids?”
“No. That’s not me, but I’ll happily be an uncle.”
“Oh.”
He pulls a cigarette pack and a lighter from his pocket, then he takes out a cigarette out and lights up despite the no smoking sign by the door.
I stare at him with my lips parted. This just the type of guy he’d be back in high school. If he was ever caught smoking in the locker room or anywhere on the school grounds, there was never anything anyone could do to him or say because he was Jericho Grayson. The rebel who lived by his own rules. He’d just keep puffing away until he was finished.
“I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to be smoking in here.” I glance at the sign again.
He answers with raised brows and looks at me as if I should know by now that those rules don’t apply to him.
“I can see you haven’t really changed one bit,” I add.
“I have. You’re just seeing the parts of me you recognize.”
“I guess so. I’ve changed, too.” I try to sound assertive. The way I’d like to sound if my life were better. However, the sinful look he gives me when he looks me up and down throws me.
“I can see that.” He continues looking at me, as if he can see through my clothes. It’s unsettling to watch him look at me that way, and so effortlessly.
I swallow past the sudden thickness in my throat and take a quick breath. “I hope that’s a compliment and you’re not calling me fat.” I know he’s not, but I’m trying to lighten the spark of undeniable arousal rippling between us. I can feel it again. It’s the same entity that came alive between us last night when he kissed me.
From the flicker of awareness in his eyes, I know he must feel it again, too. It’s dangerous grounds for us to tread on.
Keeping his gaze riveted to mine, he takes a drag on his cigarette and blows out a ring of smoke.
“You know I’m not fucking calling you fat.” Jericho’s eyes darken, and he gives me a lopsided cocky grin. “I just like the way you filled out.”
My entire body lights up with the heat I’ve been trying to stave off all night, and the nest of butterflies living in the pit of my stomach goes wild.
“I see,” I mutter, because I have to say something.
“And you’re still Miss Goodie Two-Shoes.” He takes another drag and makes a show of blowing out the smoke in hazy rings.
Miss Goodie Two-Shoes?
I haven’t been her in so long I can’t remember ever being that girl. But he doesn’t know that.
As I stare at him, something crazy comes over me. Something completely and utterly crazy that pushes me to walk back toward him and take that cigarette.
He watches me with fascination, his eyes dropping to my lips as I put the cigarette between my lips and take a drag.
The last time I did this in front of him was on my sixteenth birthday. I coughed so hard I thought I was going to die. I’m pretty sure I even turned blue as I ended up on the floor in a coughing fit.
Now, to his absolute surprise, I’m handling the smoke with the ease of someone who’s done this for a lifetime. I’m not a smoker. In fact, I hate it, but I can smoke now.
“Very impressive indeed,Mermaid,” Jericho states, watching the smoke float from my lips and rise into the air above us.
I was going to continue, but he takes the cigarette from me.
