He pulled back after several minutes, and to my surprise, he rested his forehead against mine. We were both breathless, but I watched him as he panted with his eyes closed. He was so handsome, and right now he seemed relaxed. That wasn’t a look I often saw on him. He was usually scowling or angry and tense, so getting to see him calm took my breath away even more.
His eyes opened, and he offered me a small smile, one that reached his pretty blue eyes. Lifting my hand, I ran my thumb over his cheek, and he turned his head to kiss my palm before taking my hand and sitting back in his seat.
As he glanced at the clock, he sighed. “We should probably head back so I can get home in time.” He met my eyes. “Sorry we didn’t even get outta the car.”
I snorted. “I don’t care.”
With a smirk, he released my hand and put the car back in drive. A minute in, he sighed and asked, “When can I see you again?”
My head jerked toward him in surprise. “Uh… whenever.” I’d change my schedule if I had to. Alec could yell at me all he wanted if it meant I got to spend more time with Hiro.
“I have to work tomorrow, but if I finish the job tomorrow night, we could go out the next day. Gotta check with Ulma to be sure she can sit, but that shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Okay. I can shuffle things around and do that.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, no problem.”
He shot me a small grin. When he pulled in front of my coven’s land, he turned off the car and got out, coming around to my side. As soon as I was out of the car, I found myself pressed up against it with Hiro’s tongue down my throat. I laughed against him, but it turned into a groan as he sucked on my tongue.
He kissed the hell out of me again, but pulled away too soon.
As he stepped back, I grabbed his shirt and yanked him back to me, and this time it was Hiro that smiled against my lips. When I kissed him hard enough to make him groan, I chuckled.
He pulled back, and we stared at each other for several beats before he offered a tiny smile and a nod, then walked back to the driver’s side. I watched him climb into his car, then sighed and headed into my wards. Turning around, I realized Hiro was staring at me, so I waved at him, getting another nod in return before he drove off.
With a big sigh, I walked back to my house in a daze and plopped onto my couch.
I was going to have some kind of emotional whiplash after today. Hiro was a confusing man.
It had been two weeks since Hiro decided to give me a real chance, and we’d only been out three times, and only for a couple of hours total. But we’d been texting throughout the day, every day, and talking on the phone every night, so that was something.
I was already in bed when the phone rang, and I answered it with a “Hey.”
“Hey,” he said, sounding tired.
“Everything alright?”
“Yeah, yeah. Been a long week, though.”
“For me, too. It seems like every other day, I’m getting a new case of murder or something. Makes no sense.”
He hesitated before saying, “Did you hear that they found another witch dead?”
My throat tightened for a second, but I blew out a breath and said, “Yeah, I did. I, uh, I saw the body today.”
His voice was gentle. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Not my first body.” I chuckled. “Fought and lived through a war, remember?”
He sighed. “I know, but I heard she was really… torn up.”
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes. “She was. They tortured her really badly before killing her. It, uh… it wasn’t… it was real bad.”
“I’m sorry you had to see that.” His voice was a low timbre that I wanted to get lost in after the stress of today. “Do you need anything?”
You. In my bed. With your arms around me. “No, I’m good.”
“You sure?”
“Mhm.” Wanting to change the subject, I asked, “Is your daughter asleep?”
He hesitated, then sighed. “Yes.”
“Can you tell me… why she has that breathing tube?” I wanted to figure out what was wrong with her so I could heal her, or if I couldn’t, have Ailin do it.
“We’re not there yet, Basil.”
That… hurt. That fucking hurt. He still didn’t trust me, but I nodded to my ceiling and whispered, “Okay.”
“Basil…” He trailed off with a long sigh.
“It’s fine, Hiro. Don’t worry about it.”
He grunted, but didn’t say anything for a minute. “Are you working tomorrow?”
Holding in the sigh that wanted to escape at the subject change, I replied, “No. Alec told me to take a day since I worked nine straight.” Every time I brought up his daughter, he clammed up, changed the subject, or got angry at me for asking. It was starting to piss me off a little, mostly because it hurt every time he didn’t trust me.
“Can I take ya out to lunch?”
“Not breakfast?” I smiled a tad.
“I want you to sleep in.”
Even though he’d hurt my feelings two minutes ago, that made me melt a little. “Lunch would be great.”
“Good. Text me when you wake up. Don’t set an alarm or anything, we’ll go whenever you’re ready.”
“Okay.”
He hesitated again, then said, “I’m sorry I hurt your feelin’s.”
“It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not, but… I’m not there yet, Basil.”
“Are you ever going to be?” I tried to keep the hurt out of my voice, but it seeped through anyway.
He sighed again. “I’m tryin’ to be. I know that ain’t fair to you, but that’s all I got right now.”
“Okay… that’s… that’s better than nothing.” I lifted my shoulder even though he couldn’t see me.
He grunted but didn’t reply.
An awkward moment passed before I asked, “Where do you want to go for lunch?”
“Wherever ya want.”
“You are like the king of non-answers.”
He snorted. “If you say so. Hey, what are you wearin’?”
I chuckled. “Not telling you.” He’d made sort of a game out of trying to get into my pants again. And even though I really fucking wanted him, last time he’d hurt me so badly—not physically, physically he made my body fucking sing, but emotionally, he’d cut me deeply. So maybe I wasn’t trusting him as much as I should, either. Reluctantly, I acknowledged that maybe, just maybe, I could understand him not wanting to talk about his kid.
“Aw, come on now. You wearin’ just underwear to bed?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Yeah, I would, ass. That’s why I asked. If you want to know, I’m in a really sexy pair of sweatpants and a huge tee that’s two sizes too big. Total turn on.”
I snorted. “You’d look sexy in anything.”
His deep chuckles reached my ears, and suddenly, my briefs were a little too tight—yes, I was only in briefs, but I wasn’t gonna tell him that. “Glad you approve.”
“Oh yeah, I totally do. You should wear that outfit to our date tomorrow.”