Page 20 of Mimosa

“I mean, if anything looks dangerous, past, well, the obvious danger, I’ll get you out of there. I’m going to tell them you know nothing of the BBC and you’re all just bartenders who thieve now and then.”

“It’s true, though, except for knowing about them,” Mims said, keeping his eyes on some spot on the floor in front of him. “Hippy’s giving me some weapons, you know, not guns, that can help me get away if I need to.”

“Good,” he said, and Mims turned his head at last, looking Sonny in the eye.

“Yeah. It is. Not that, well, I don’t trust you, but I don’t know you very well.”

“I am here right now to change that, at least enough that we can pass as dating. I’ll be at the club tonight. The heads of the organization were fine with it, and when I tell them I actually have one of you on the hook, they’ll be happy. The thing is, we have to pretend to not know each other tonight, but we’ll flirt with each other.”

“You flirt? I can’t picture it,” he said with a little nervous laugh.

Sonny had to smile at that. “Yeah, I’m out of practice. If I’m talking to you, or…I don’t know, looking at you, consider it flirting.”

“Okay. I guess I can work with that.”

Sonny saw that up close as they were, he was even prettier. He had flecks of pure gold in that dark brown of his eyes, and his little smile was so lovely, Sonny felt himself pulled to the guy. “I’ll try to…I don’t know, get better at it.”

“I’m not worried. This is all…pretend, right?”

Their eyes locked as they were, he couldn’t get away from the guy’s question.

For him…the way he felt just being close to Ali Bajwa, or Mims, as everyone called him, well, he didn’t think of it as pretend at all. “We’re acting like we’re attracted to one another for right now, and for my part, no, I don’t have to pretend. You’re…you’re a sexy thing. I guess that’s why you work the job you do.”

“Great tips,” he whispered, then ducked his head. “Yeah, you’re handsome too. You’re just too young for me.” That nervous laughter came again before he confessed, “The other guys tease me because I go for older men.”

“I’m older.”

“Notthatmuch,” he said and rubbed his hands over his jeans. “But…I think you’re sexy too.”

“Then it shouldn’t be hard to pretend we’re attracted. Once we’re supposed to be dating, though, I’ll have to kiss you, you know, if someone is watching,” he said and he could barely breathe, so the statement came out on that breathless voice.

Mims moved a little closer and said, “Should we, uh…practice that too?”

As his eyes slid closed, Sonny could say nothing, but managed a hummed, “Mmhm,” as he felt lips pressed to his in a slow, first way.

Mims’s lips were warm, almost hot, and his breath was even hotter as he breathed out from lips that were parted as they separated.

It was a second in time, of the millions of seconds of a man’s life, but somehow, that lone second in all the others seemed to stretch out so long that it engulfed half his life.

He opened his eyes to see Mims opening his. Those gold-flecked eyes were almost black as his pupils took over, and he was still as beautiful.

“Damn,” Mims said. “I forgot what it’s like to kiss a guy who had full lips.”

“Like the thin-lipped, huh?”

“No, but older men, their lips are…less than they were in their younger days.”

Sonny chuckled darkly. “Maybe it’s time to date some younger men.”

“Yeah. Maybe,” he whispered, then ducked his head. “I, uh, guess we should talk about…other things, like…where we go when we are on a date.”

“Dinner? Dancing?”

Mims smiled again, and nodded without looking at him. “I guess, sure, but I kind of get enough dancing at work.”

“A nice walk around the park? Maybe a drive to the mountains?”

Sighing, Mims said, “Yeah.”

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