I eased my way up the steps to the second-floor landing, still not fully functioning, since my coffee was still too hot to actually drink, and I nearly missed the sound of someone coming up behind me at a little quicker pace.
I scooted over, rather than picking up the pace myself, because I had no intention of spilling my coffee, or moving faster at the moment, but instead of passing, the person slowed, leaning down to get in my line of sight, and I actually gasped when I saw Grant's handsome face.
"Hi," he said, his voice a little huskier than I remembered it being.
Did that mean he knew? Had he watched me?
Nearly dropping my coffee, I bobbled it for a moment, tripping on the last step when it pulled my attention away from walking, and Grant reached out and gripped my arm, steadying me.
"Thank you," I whispered, before clearing my throat. "What did you say?"
"Uh, hi?"
"Oh, no. Just tired."
His lips twitched as he shook his head. "I meant hello."
"Oh," I said, laughing and waving my hand in the air. "Me too. How are you this morning, Grant?"
He looked at my cup, tilting his head to the side, before once again meeting my eyes. "It's noon. I came home for lunch."
"Oh. Good afternoon." I'd forgotten I'd slept the morning away. "Where do you work?"
"Actually," he said, reaching out and poking my coffee cup with a small smile. "I own that coffee shop around the corner, but we only serve sweets and I forgot my lunch."
I gasped, blinking stupidly. "Oh, that's why you always smell so good. Like coffee. Well, I'm sure you also smell like you." I leaned forward, taking a deep breath of him, nearly moaning at the sweet, nutty smell of delicious coffee and something else, before cringing as I realized what I'd just done. "Yep. That's you. I mean, I think that smells like you. That's how you usually smell when I smell you. I'd have to smell your armpits, or your…" I trailed off, unable to keep myself from looking down at his crotch and blushing hard enough to get dizzy when he followed my gaze. "This is getting uncomfortable, isn't it?"
A laugh bubbled out of him, starting quiet and growing in volume, until his body was shaking with it. It was a beautiful sound, deep and rich. It went straight to my balls, and my dick hardened immediately. My slightly tender asshole clenched, and I moaned, biting my lip.
"Wow," I whispered stupidly. You should really stop doing that, or I'm going to have an orgasm.
His laughter calmed, but didn't stop completely as he raised both eyebrows at me, looking surprised. "You're going to what?
"What?"
"Did you say something about an orgasm?"
I gasped, covering my mouth with my hand and mumbling against my palm. "Holy shit! Did I?"
That was fucking embarrassing, but damn he was beautiful with his face so full of laughter and happiness like that. He'd chuckled softly the day before during the movies, but I could barely hear it, and it was nothing like this. He was gorgeous all the time anyway, and obviously, I'd never managed to be intelligent around the man, but this was different. This was special.
"Would you maybe like to hang out at my house tonight?" he asked, suddenly looking a little nervous.
"Together?"
He blinked, his mouth twitching with the need to smile. "Uh. I guess I could leave if you'd rather hang out at my house alone."
Sighing, I shook my head and closed my eyes. "No. You'd better be there. There is no telling what I'll do if I'm alone in your house."
Chapter Five
JULY
I groaned as I looked around, trying to make sure everything was right. I was absolutely terrible at this. I knew I was. Hell, I hadn't even actually asked the man on a date, I'd simply asked him to come hang out at my house. He probably though he was coming over as a friend.
Shit. There was no doubt he thought he was coming over as a friend. He didn't know I'd finally hunted down his vlog after hearing him call my name last night when he'd taken that knot. He had no idea I'd watched so many damn entries I'd barely gotten any sleep, and that I'd paced the path in front of my bed so much, I was pretty sure I'd stone bruised the bottom of my feet while I tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do about it.
Of course, he didn't know I'd meant to ask him on a date. The worst part was, even if he had known, I didn't know what the fuck to do with him once I got him in my house. I knew what I wanted to do, but I didn't think I should start off by caveman dragging him to my room and fucking him, until he really was stuffed full of my knot. Somehow, that didn't seem the least bit romantic. Not that I knew the first thing about being romantic anyway.
I'd cooked dinner, and had several movies, but I was starting to second guess myself. Was that even romantic? It was practically the same thing we'd done at his house. Not that it hadn't been fun, but maybe I should have asked him out to dinner, or taken him to the actual movie theater. Then maybe he wouldn't be coming over thinking he was hanging out with a friend when I wanted to actually date him, and I wouldn't be stuck with the difficult situation of trying to figure out how to let him know, when I had very little social skills to begin with.
There was a knock on the door, and I groaned, looking down at my shirt, and wondering if I should take the thing off. He seemed to like me without a shirt before. Maybe I could get him to… No. I still wasn't comfortable enough in my own skin for that right now.
"Hi," he said brightly when I opened the door, and I smiled, stepping aside so he could walk by.
His eyes widened on my face as he passed, and he nearly ran into the side of my couch as he continued to watch me. He managed to catch himself right before he flipped feet over head over the arm, and even gave one of those awkward laughs while patting the thing, and I sighed, completely smitten.
I knew the man could be graceful and funny and absolutely charming, and I fully appreciated that part of him, but this slightly goofy, clumsy and rambly part of him was just as fun.
"You have a cat?" he asked, drawing my attention to the furball sitting on the very top of the bookshelf next to the hallway.
"No."
"Who dat, den?"
"I just call him Cat, but he's not mine."
Bates focused on me, his eyebrow raising as he then glanced around the room. "But he's in your house."
"Yeah, he comes in through the cat door sometimes," I said, shrugging.
Blinking, he tilted his head, focusing on the door I'd just shut before looking back up at me. "What cat door?"
I glanced at the door too, before shaking my head and walking past him over to the window with the worst fire escape in the history of fire escapes, where I'd put up a board the size of the window with a little cat door cut out in the middle. The flap was magnetic, so my air didn't get out, and since I'd probably have to scale the side of the building if the thing caught fire, rather than try to walk down the rusty, crusty stairs that I was pretty confident wouldn't hold the weight of anyone heavier than Cat, I felt pretty safe in assuming nobody was going to break in that way.
"You installed a cat door on your window?" he asked, his eyes still wide as he watched me.