Page 29 of Meeting Mr. Adorkable
Arlo’s laughter stuttered in his throat.
“I do, but you don’t—” Have to be polite.
“I’m not enquiring to be polite,” Lucian said, all but stealing Arlo’s thought away, “but I’d love to see if Collier’s Creek has an undiscovered genius lurking in its midst.”
Lucian was so bright and wide eyed, Arlo would have said yes to anything even when he should have been saying no, even when he should never have blurted out his second invite in just days.
“I’ve got a studio.”
Lucian’s smile stretched wider. “Then lead the way.”
Upstairs, Arlo stood aside to let Lucian in. The sun had slipped behind the mountains, and he reached out to switch on the light, but Lucian’s startled intake of breath tugged at something deep in Arlo’s chest and he let his arm drop.
Lucian’s reaction to the room was the same as his, months before, when he’d walked in for the first time after it had been finished. A glass wall, like downstairs, but the ceiling too was glass, as were the two side walls. The only part of the room that wasn’t glass was the wall behind them.
“This is incredible. In the daytime, this’ll be flooded with light. It’s different from downstairs. Up higher, I feel like I’m actually in the mountains.” Lucian’s words were quiet, almost for himself. Arlo said nothing, hesitant to break the spell the room had cast over Lucian the way it had cast it over him.
Lucian turned, his face little more than a shadow between the very last of the dying sun’s rays and the first glow of moonlight. His lips were curved up in a soft smile. Arlo’s heart clenched hard, and a weight pressed against his chest.
“It’s amazing. You don’t know how lucky you are.”
Lucian bit down on his lower lip, its full plumpness held captive. Arlo’s breath hitched, wanting nothing more than to rescue that beautiful mouth, to capture it and make it his. He took a step closer, his heart jolting as Lucian didn’t drop his gaze, didn’t step back, but let his eyelids flutter to a close. Arlo cupped Lucian’s face between his palms, holding him steady as their lips touched, releasing a bolt of heat deep into his belly.
From some dim and distant place, a faint voice whispered that this wasn’t supposed to happen, that it wasn’t part of the plan, but as he plunged into the wet heat of Lucian’s mouth, as tongue met tongue, as body pressed into body, that insistent voice faded until it ceased to be.
The need for air forced them apart, their rapid breaths the only sound.
“I’m sorry,” Arlo breathed. “I didn’t mean… I shouldn’t have…” But as the taste of Lucian’s lips tingled on his own, everything he hadn’t meant to do, and everything he shouldn’t have done, faded to nothing.
“At least this time you didn’t break my nose, or bend my specs out of shape.” Lucian blinked up at him, his eyes huge and owlish behind his geeky glasses.
“I told you that was your fault, because your nose is too big. And anyhow, when did the sexy, nerdy librarian look become a thing?”
“Excuse me! Sexy, nerdy floral artist, if you don’t mind.”
Arlo smiled, reveling in the playful banter they so easily fell into almost as much as he had in the kiss. Almost, but not quite.
“You know, I’d like to kiss you again.” Even though I shouldn’t… Dangerous ground, ground he’d been determined not to tread again…
“And I think I might like you to.” Lucian tilted his face.
“Perhaps you could take something off for me,” Arlo whispered against Lucian’s lips.
Lucian squeaked, and it was so damn adorable that Arlo couldn’t help but throw his head back and laugh.
“Your glasses. Although, if you want to take anything else off…”
“I… But I wouldn’t be able to see,” Lucian mumbled.
Arlo’s laughter died. Lucian was suddenly awkward, and panic speared through Arlo.
“Just didn’t want to break them,” he said, forcing a lightness into his voice.
“You won’t.”
Lucian wound his arms around him. Arlo luxuriated in the forbidden kiss. He wouldn’t let himself think about what he’d told himself he wouldn’t and couldn’t do, not when Lucian arched into his body, and not when he made all those moans and gasps, and not when his mouth tasted so, so good.
“Wow, those stars are incredible,” Lucian gasped when they broke the kiss.
