Page 49 of Defend Me
I laughed and crossed my arms over my chest. “Tone down the flattery. It won’t work on me.”
“Pretty sure that’s a lie,” Tilian said.
“Okay, fine, but it really only does the trick when it’s someone I’m fucking.”
Sen nearly spewed his beer. “You get whipped that easily?”
“Nah, I just like having my ego stroked after someone has seen me naked.”
“Must feel nice when they don’t comment on your tiny dick,” Kai teased.
“Yeah, I’m sensitive about it. Shoot me.”
I hopped up on one of the chairs and swung my feet while I nursed the drink. Tilian came up beside me. His fingers touched my thigh unexpectedly and I winced, pulling it away automatically. I probably shouldn’t have continued to create the moon on my leg, but after my meeting with Holly, I needed to wind down.
“Sorry,” he mumbled.
I caught his arm before he could step away. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Do you… want to hang out after this?”
My lips pulled to the side. “It’ll be late.”
“Yeah, but we don’t have classes tomorrow.”
“True. If I’m not in bed by midnight, though, I turn into a pumpkin.”
He smiled and ducked his head. “What if I, uh, made sure you were in bed by midnight?”
Movement behind him drew my gaze. Kai smirked as he raised and lowered his brows suggestively.
He was probably onto something. Tilian was expressing interest, which both surprised me and didn’t. Even though he was an anxious fucker, he wasn’t necessarily afraid of things. He just had to overthink them before he made his move.
Taking him up on this was tempting, but he was my friend. I didn’t want to change that dynamic irreparably. He was beginning to know me on a deeper level and adding sex to that risked him seeing more of me than I wanted him to. It would take away some of my control over what we had, which I didn’t like to lose in any of my relationships. If they saw too much of me, they could start to pick apart all of my masks, then they’d have a direct line of sight inside of me.
I wanted to flip off Kai since he was shooting me knowing glances. He’d even made a ‘fucking’ gesture with his hands. Thankfully, Sen smacked him in the chest. It made Kai laugh, but it also drew his attention back to his boyfriend.
“Sure,” I replied. Well, that wasn’t what I told my mouth to say. “We can go to my place. Maybe we can work on our project.” I flashed him a lopsided smile.
“Yeah, cool.”
The light expression on his face remained, which allowed me to draw in a full breath. I was going to convince myself that he really did just want to hang out. If I didn’t return his advances, we’d just keep this friendship rolling. I really needed his calming energy in my life right now.
“Anyone want another round?” I asked.
When everyone assented, I hopped off the stool and headed to the bar, taking every step slowly while I thought about everything yet nothing in particular.
Chapter 15
Tilian
Did I like going to bars? Hard no. They were unnecessarily loud, the drinks were expensive, and there was always at least one asshole who was intent on finding someone to bone. The one here was currently talking to some women playing pool. I’d been watching, making bets in my head on whether one- or both- would go home with him. Personally, I didn’t see the appeal of a forty-something man who prowled bars for something as trivial as sex.
“Another?” the man behind the counter asked.
“Uh, yeah. Thanks.”
He took my glass and filled it with Space Dust. It was my favorite beer, so at least this place had that going for them.
