Page 98 of Devilry

“Excuse me,” Aiden says quickly, immediately stopping her retreating form.

“It’s my friend’s birthday and we’d like to celebrate with a bottle of saké please.”

She nods and walks away, just as Aiden looks at me knowingly. “You don’t eat Japanese and deny yourself saké. It’s unheard of.”

Feeling relaxed, happy, and content, there’s only one person I want to tell.

Picking up my cell off the table, I type a quick message to Cole.

Me: Aiden and Callie really outdid themselves. This place looks great.

The three dots appear and disappear numerous times before his message comes through.

Cole: You deserve it, Elijah. Relax, enjoy your night out. Happy Birthday.

Knowing the words I need to hear has become Cole’s forte. After divulging to him my home life, he now reads me like an open book, always offering me comfort and consolation when I need it most.

I begin to type out the words ‘wish you were here’, but think better of it. Cole doesn’t need to feel bad about it and neither do I.

Tonight isn’t the night to remind each other of the things we’ll probably never have.

Just as I place my cell down on the table, I hear the now recognizable Japanese greeting echo through the restaurant. I raise my head to capture that same moment Aiden loves so much, when I see Cole, flanked by two other people, staring at me.

“Isn’t that your professor?” I hear Aiden ask. I can’t answer him, all I can do is stare right back at Cole. “What are the chances of him eating out here tonight too?”

Yeah.What are the chances?

21

Cole

When I messaged Harper and Miles this afternoon to join me for dinner, it was probably my most selfish move yet.

I played it by ear with Elijah, and figured I lived close enough to make a last-minute decision about where we would be eating. When he mentioned Sakéshop, it was Kismet. Like the night was mine for the taking, it took me no time to get here.

I was under the impression that if I couldn’t spend Elijah’s actual birthday with him, then maybe I could be near him… In my head it seemed like the perfect idea; we would share knowing smiles, steal heated glances, maybe sneak off for a secret kiss.

I had romanticized our secret tryst, and as I stand here staring at the horrified look on Elijah’s face, I realize me showing up here is anything but romantic.

Three sets of eyes stare at me, a different form of recognition in each. I don’t know what made me think I could slip in here and not be recognised. I wanted him to see me, didn’t I?

He lowers his head, flicking his hair in his eyes, a habit I haven’t seen him do with me in a very long time.

I hate myself for this.

Too busy thinking about how much it was killingmeto not see him today, and howIwanted to be the one that made his birthday better, I didn’t consider the position me showing up would put him in.

Unquestionably jealous of his friends, it eats me up inside to not be able to lay claim on him. In the back of my mind, I know that’s possessive and brutish, but I can’t seem to change it.

There hasn’t been a day in the last two weeks where I haven’t wanted more. More than him in my bedroom, more than him in my house, more than the quick, stolen moments at work. I didn’t expect it to hit me like this.

After we had sex, I thought it would be even easier to stay hidden, because all we’d want to do is fuck each other’s brains out. And we do do that. Hard and rough, slow and sensual, we cover it all.

Since that first time, it’s almost impossible to not end up inside him whenever we see each other.

He’s easily the best sex of my life, and I’m not too much of an idiot to know there’s a reason beyond our sexual compatibility for that. We fit together in all the ways I didn’t think we would. Our worlds are melding together, tighter and closer than I could’ve ever imagined, and it’s making me crazy.

Certifiable.

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