are X-rated.”
I laugh as we walk. “I had that impression.”
“I was definitely trying to leave an impression,” he says. “All the way in you.”
“Yes, I enjoyed that. And I definitely would have enjoyed all of it. But—”
Lucas grabs my hand, tugs me toward him, then slides his fingers into my hair. His eyes blaze with heat, like they did in the diner. “I know you said sex doesn’t change a thing, and maybe it doesn’t. But it also does. Because I want you so fucking much. I would really like to do ungentlemanly things to you with my tongue, and I get the sense you’d like me to.”
My pulse beats between my legs, and I ache for him. Here on the streets of New York, as the sights and sounds of the city mingle with my desire, I want to take him up on that offer.
I want to forget what we’re doing, and why, and go back to his place, my place, anyplace.
“I would like that Lucas,” I say, choosing stark honesty because I can. Because we’re not actually going to act on this in public.
But before I can say another word, he bends closer, moves his mouth to my ear, and whispers, “I thought about you last night. When I was home. I was so fucking turned on still. I couldn’t get you out of my head.”
The pulse turns into an insistent ache. “What did you do?” I ask, heat spreading over my skin.
“What do you think I did? I took a hot shower, and I pictured licking you. Sucking you. Tasting you. I made you come over and over on my tongue and my lips, and then I came so fucking hard in my hand I was sure you heard me all the way at your place.”
I melt into a pool of lust. I’m nothing but atoms and elements, crackling and sizzling.
The image he paints is so alluring, so arousing, that I can’t think straight. I might need to revise my ruling on diner bathrooms.
Brrrrrr-iiing.
But that sound breaks the moment.
Brrrrrr-iiing.
Lucas grabs at his phone in his back pocket. “Holy shit, it’s Rowan.”
The little fucking cockblocker. But I couldn’t be happier to hear from him.
19
Lucas
I answer in a nanosecond, grabbing Lola’s hand, tugging her around the corner and darting under the awning of a building, where it’s slightly quieter.
“Rowan! What’s going on?” I say on FaceTime.
“Dude! How are you? I have to tell—” The phone stutters, and he cuts out.
Shit. My pulse speeds up. “Rowan, are you there?”
“—rup.”
“What?” I ask, shaking my head. Maybe the lust has fogged my brain. I can’t make out his words. “What are you saying?”
“Service is bahhhd.” He sounds like a sheep.
Impatience threads through my body. “No shit. Just tell me the lottery clue. We know the rest.”
“Oh. Syrup. You got the syrup one? Because that’s Wendy’s Diner. Quickie by the Casablanca sign. Damn good movie.”
Groaning, I wave a hand, telling him to speed it up. “Got it. Got the others. I need the lottery one.”
“That Pin-Up Lanes one was. . .” He cuts out again. When he comes back, he says, “Tricky. It was so damn tricky. I’m sorry about that one. Should have told you that when I forwarded the email. My bad.”
“No shit it was tricky,” I say, recalling with crystal clarity how Lola and I argued over it like our younger halves. “Now, the lottery. What’s the answer to that one?”
“I’ll tell you, but you got the tango studio? Please tell me you got that one, man? Because I totally need my iPad. It has everything on there. All my music, and the poetry I started writing, including a poem I wrote that I’m going to recite when I propose to Luna. And I fucking love you for doing this. Like, mad, insane brotherly love.”
“Yeah, I know. Love you too, and I’m sure she’ll love the poem. And we’ll go to Takes Two to Tango. Just tell me the lottery answer. Is it an amusement park? Because there better be a lifetime ticket for me to Great Adventure for this.”
“No. I’m not that selfish. C’mon. I want to save the—”
And he cuts out again.
“Alpacas,” he barks out breathlessly when he comes back.
“Alpacas?”
“Yes. The alpaca sanctuary. It’s one of my dreams.”
Lola’s eyes brighten, and she mouths llamas.
“You mean llamas?” I say to Rowan.
“No. I mean alpacas. That’s what’s so funny. That’s what we fought over. If alpacas and llamas were the same things. Because they’re not, man. Isn’t that crazy? But