Page 42 of Mercy Lake

Then, his lips finally met mine, the pressure subtle and chaste. It was nice, but not what I wanted. Owen must have caught on from my frustrated huff as he cupped my jaw, leaned in closer and moulded his mouth to mine.

It was a strange sensation, the contact familiar and different at the same time, but pleasant.More than pleasant.I couldn’t help but return it in kind. There was no tongue, lip-biting or pantingmoans, but that didn’t stop another puzzle piece from clicking into place.

Owen had unlocked a hunger I was longing to explore… Only with him. After a few seconds of modest kissing, he sighed in complete contentment, then gave me his signature sideways smile.

I wasmelting, our eyes clashing together in a show of fresh passion.

That’s when two distinct voices cut in. “Ewwwwwww.”

Austin and Cooper’s interruption had me dropping to my back, giggling.Caught red-handed.Owen followed suit, holding his stomach as laughter took over.

The disruptive duo then ran off to conspire world domination, leaving us to think on our shared moment.

As we sobered, I shifted my head to the side, taking in Owen’s shining expression.

“Will you go on a date with me?” I blurted.

Um… what? Where did that come from?

I snapped my mouth closed, unwilling to let my nerves take back the request. I would have been lying to myself if I didn’t admit that I had been thinking about it for a while.

One second turned into another as he just stared at me without giving me an answer. Anxiety soon spilled over, which had my tongue running nonsense. “You don’t have to say yes,” I rushed. “You know, just forget I asked—”

Owen shocked me by breaking out in laughter again. “For such a smart woman, you really are stupid sometimes, Lex.”

What the fuck?Before I could react, he rushed on. “I just told you I love you, and you’re nervous as hell to ask me on a date. In what world would I ever say no? In what universe could I ever deny you?” Then, he shifted fully onto his side, his aura positively glowing with glee. “Yes, Alexis, I will go on a date with you.”

Chapter 25

OWEN

Alexis drove as I sat in the passenger seat, the low tones of the radio lulling us into a calm ambience. The only hints I got for our date was to pack a bag and that we would be gone overnight.

One night! Twenty-four hours on our own!

What do I do? What do I say?

Nerves had me contemplating every move. Until I remembered my brief interaction with my brother the day before.

I had stormed into my parents’ house on high alert, Liam lazing on the couch, stuffing his face with popcorn.

“Get up! Get up!” I screamed.

Liam jumped to his feet, startled. I continued forward and slapped him clean across the face like the little bitch he was.

“WHAT THE FUCK, ASSHOLE?!” he roared before whipping out his hand to return the favour. I dodged before he tackled me to the couch, where we began wrestling—pretty unsuccessfully, I might add.

We soon lost our breath, and Liam got a stitch, so we called a truce. After exerting some of my pent-up frustration, I suddenly felt lighter. “Next time you open your big mouth, bitch boy, I’m gonna crush your balls till you lose the ability to speak.”

Liam chuckled, then stuffed more popcorn in his mouth. “Can’t have that. I still plan on giving Coop siblings.”

“Geez, you don’t even close your mouth when you eat. Filthy animal.” I spared a side-eye to his noisy chewing. “Like father, like son, I guess.”

“Hey, don’t blame my boy just ’cause you have no game. Coop even managed to score you a date, so I’ve heard?”

My lips stretched into a wide grin. There was no way I could prevent it. “Huh. Yeah, I guess the little man helped a bit."

Liam smirked. “Now, don’t fuck it up, bro. Go get ya girl.”

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