Joker (Hell's Ankhor #8) - Aiden Bates Page 0,43

his gentle reminders for me to come up for air when I got a little too locked into the work.

“This isn’t just an impulsive thing, though,” Brennan said carefully. “I mean… it only has to complicate things if we let it.”

Like a friends-with-benefits thing. Like the last time. I looked away.

“I don’t mean pretending it never happened,” Brennan clarified quickly. “I like you, Joker. I’m not doing this just because… because it’s convenient, or something.”

That made me pause. Well—it made sense. He let me use his studio, and ate meals with me, and made me comfortable in his workspace. But that could’ve just been professional courtesy, for all I knew. It was different to hear him say it. And even then, it was hard to believe it. Hard to believe he saw anything worth liking in me.

But I liked him, too. Wanted more than a one-time thing. And that was foreign territory for me. All of this was foreign territory for me.

“Can’t deny that hooking up in your workshop is a little convenient,” I said.

Usually my bad jokes got a groan, or an eyeroll, but Brennan’s smile only widened. “So convenient it’s like we could do it again, if we wanted.”

“I’m usually a hit-it-and-quit-it kind of guy,” I admitted.

“But…” Brennan prompted.

“But I like you, too,” I said, and immediately cringed, wrinkling my nose.

Brennan laughed and stepped a little closer, in between my spread knees, and caught my lips in another brief kiss. “That makes it easy, then.”

“Dunno about that,” I muttered into the kiss. “The last few weeks have pretty much been the best relationship I’ve ever had.”

Brennan went still and pulled away.

My heart pounded as cold anxiety flooded me. There was my fucking lack of brain-to-mouth filter ruining things again. This wasn’t a relationship. Even if we were sort-of discussing hooking up more than once. “That’s not—I meant—”

“No take-backs,” Brennan said, then kissed me again briefly, just to shut me up. “If you want to make things official, we should at least go on a real date first.”

My mouth dropped open as I gaped at him. A date? A relationship?

Brennan? With me? My brain stopped working. It just didn’t seem possible.

My expression made Brennan laugh, and he ran one hand affectionately down my side.

“Don’t look so shocked,” he said. “So you’ll go with me? On a date?”

“Yeah,” I stammered. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

“Good. We can work out the details later.”

Then Brennan tugged me down for a real kiss, a deep, passionate kiss that stole the breath from my lungs. He dropped his hands to my thighs and slid them up, across my hips to dip into the waistband of my jeans, and then back down, sending sparks of warm anticipation up my spine.

“Off,” I said, tugging at the neckline of his shirt. “Come on.”

“You too,” Brennan said. He laughed into the kiss before he pulled away and unbuttoned his flannel just enough to pull it over his head. I did the same, tugging my long-sleeved shirt over and off, and the chill of the air immediately made my nipples harden and goosebumps rise on my skin. But then Brennan was back on me, his hands roaming all over my bare chest again as he kissed me hard.

“You’re so fucking hot,” Brennan murmured against my lips. “Love watching you work in here. Thought about doing this so many times.”

“Doing what?” I encouraged, as I ran my hands over his broad shoulders and defined biceps. God, he’d thought about this. About me. My cock throbbed hard against my zipper, making me fidget on the bench.

Brennan smoothed his hands over my chest, then down to my hips again. “Getting you up on a bench like this.” He hooked his fingers into the waistband of my jeans. “Blowing you. Fucking you.”

Desire made me dizzy, and I rocked back on the bench, breaking the kiss to drop back onto my elbows. Brennan just laughed, smoothing his hands up and down my chest again, his finger catching on my nipples sending a spark of pleasure-pain through me.

“Fuck,” I said, letting my head loll back as I looked down the bridge of my nose at him. “Then why don’t you?”

“Which part?” Brennan leaned down and started pressing kisses to my bare chest, his hot, teasing mouth slowly moving down.

“Both,” I groaned. My abs tensed and jumped as he ran his tongue over my skin, then followed that with a little nip of teeth. “Either. Anything.”

“Anything, huh?” Brennan hummed. His warm breath skating over my skin was