“What are you doing?”
“I’ve changed my mind. Let’s stick with French.” He gave me another shove, this one harder, and I stumbled back. “You kissedmeback,” I pointed out. “You told me you never responded when Finn kissed you, but you kissed meback. So don’t pretend you hated it.”
Laurent let out a disbelieving laugh as he raked a hand through his hair. “That’s hardly the key issue here, is it?”
“Isn’t it?” It felt like someone had replaced my brain with cheese. The really holey kind they used in cartoons.
“You’re straight.”
Ah, right. Of course Laurent was going to fixate on that. I couldn’t honestly say I blamed him. “I am,” I said. I frowned at my statement. “At least… I thought I was. Then I met you.”
Laurent stared at me for a moment and then burst out laughing. “Right.” He levered himself away from the counter and pushed past me to exit the kitchen. After a momentary pause, I went after him. “You see, this is why younger men should be avoided,” he said, stalking to the door and dramatically opening it to signal his wish for me to depart.
I stopped dead in the middle of the living room, refusing to cooperate in my leaving, no matter how many times he swept his arm toward the hallway. “You make it sound like I’m sixteen. I’m twenty-three. Don’t turn into Cillian and treat me like I’m a kid who doesn’t know my own mind.”
“Well, clearly, you don’t,” Laurent ground out. “Because you’re saying one thing and doing another.”
“I know my own mind,” I argued. “I’ve wanted to kiss you all day, so I kissed you.” When he opened his mouth to say something, I got in first. “Yes, I kissed you during dinner to fool my brother, but the upshot of that was that I enjoyed it. And ever since then, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around it.” I waved a hand at the still open door. “Do you think you could close that? It’s hard enough to discuss my bisexuality with you. I’d rather not get your neighbors involved.”
“So you’re bisexual now, are you? And all it took was one kiss with me.”
When he put it like that, it did sound somewhat ridiculous. “I don’t know. I’m trying to work things out.” I gestured at the door again. This time, Laurent backed down, letting go of it so it swung closed.
He took a seat on the arm of the sofa, arms crossed over his chest and his expression saying, “Go on then and you better make it good.”
Chapter Fourteen
“I don’t know if it’s men, or just you.” Another snort of laughter escaped from Laurent. “I’m being honest here. The least you could do is not laugh at me.”
I held Laurent’s gaze. He scrutinized my expression for a few seconds, as if searching for the lie, before nodding. “I apologize, but you have to see this from my point of view. One day you’re straight, and then the next you’re bisexual, or bi-curious, or whatever you’re calling it. That’s not how it works.”
“Really? And who decided that? Did someone write a rulebook? Because I’d very much like to read it, if so.”
“It just… doesn’t.”
“I can’t comment on what anyone else experiences. I’m not in their head. All I can talk about is my feelings.”
“Your feelings,” Laurent said, his tone scathing.
“Yes, my feelings! I do have them. I find you attractive. That’s all there is to it. There was a part of me that thought I might kiss you again and discover it had been nothing but a blip.”
Laurent cocked his head to one side, his expression one of genuine curiosity. Which I’d take any day over his cynicism. “And?”
“Did I act like a man not enjoying himself?”
The time Laurent took to consider his answer felt like an aeon. “No.”
“Well, there you go, then. No blip. Trust me, nobody is more surprised about this than I am. I had a choice between freaking out and never seeing you again, or going with the flow and realizing it’s not a big deal. I went with the latter. So I kissed you.”
“I remember,” Laurent said with the first glimmer of humor I’d seen from him. “I was there. One minute I was cleaning up. The next, a horny Irish man had attacked me.”
“I didn’t attack you. You’re exaggerating.”
“I see you have no problem being labeled as horny?”
I shrugged, my lips curling up into a smile. “I’ve been called worse.”
Laurent slid sideways onto the sofa and leaned his head back against the cushions. “And am I supposed to meet this unexpected confession of you finding me attractive with unbridled enthusiasm?”
