Page 80 of The KING Review

I crank the faucet, ice cold, and shove her wrist under it so she hisses, cutting herself off.

“I should have been more careful. You’re not used to this stove. I shouldn’t have let you stand so close. I should have done it myself. I’m sorry.” The words are a stream, unfiltered with panic.

Neve breathes a soft laugh, almost delighted, even as water beads her skin and the red welt grows angrier and angrier.

“Grant. Hey, hey, baby.” She turns to look at me, hair slipping loose from her witchy little clip. Her free hand slides up my chest, flat and warm. She palms my jaw and turns my face to hers, framing it between her hands. “I’m all right,” she whispers. “It’s not a big deal, I promise. I’ve had way worse. This? This is nothing.” Her thumb sweeps my cheekbone, slow.

I want to argue. I’m supposed to be a protector. Instead, I just stand there, letting her touch me. She leans in. Her lips brush mine, light at first, then firmer. She kisses me like she’s already forgiven every fuckup I’ve ever made or will make.

She kisses me again, and this time, she smiles against my mouth. “See?” she whispers. “Not a disaster. I’d let you burn me a hundred times if it meant I get to stand this close to you. Okay, baby?”

She’s going to kill me, calling me ‘baby’ like that, but I want to hear it every time. It makes me feel like I’m hers. I want to be hers.

“Okay,” I whisper.

“Okay,” she echoes, stealing another kiss. “Do you want to cook the rest of the tostones while I watch from a safe distance?”

I huff a broken laugh. “I’m not letting you back near that pan.”

Neve grins, then mock pouts. I’m powerless to resist leaning in and kissing her. She melts against me, and I slide an arm around her waist. When I tilt my head, she opens for me, sighing against my mouth as my tongue rolls over hers.

Kissing her is like heaven.

I’m dying to know what she tastes like… elsewhere.

I pull back, trying to keep the thread of the evening. I’m supposed to be cooking for her, wining and dining her. I want this to be a good date, not just a fuck. It’s supposed to make up for the print room.

“You’re thinking too hard,” Neve says softly, her hand coming up to shape my jaw.

My lips part, and I blink down at her. “What?”

“I can see there’s something running over in your head, so just… relax.” She pops up on her toes, kissing me again. “I’m here because I want to be, Grant. I promise, you’re not going to scare me off.”

I frown, then huff a laugh, but I still keep her away from the pan while I fry up the tostones.

Neve tortures me the entire time we eat dinner, running her foot up and down my leg, moaning with almost every bite she takes, telling me it tastes “better than sex.”

I make it about two seconds after finishing my food before I’m hauling her into my lap. She lets out a little squeak, but goes willingly, until she’s straddling me with her thick thighs on either side of my hips.

I grip her ass, holding her steady as her nose brushes mine. “Hey,” she whispers, giving a musical little giggle.

“Hey, baby girl.” I lean in and catch her mouth with mine, hungry, and she opens easily, moaning for me. “Fuck. You make such pretty sounds.”

She hums, hands roaming, but as soon as they move to my stomach, I flinch.

Neve wasn’t exactly shy in the print room—she made it abundantly fucking clear that she finds me physically attractive, and she explicitly stated that she isn’t into me despite my body—but unfortunately, it doesn’t undo decades of self-consciousness and the inadvertent impact of society’s standards.

My body is not “the ideal.” I’d come to terms with that.

Objectively, neither is hers—and it’s still fucking perfect to me. But I can’t seem to apply the same rules to myself. Nobody sees themselves accurately, I know that. It’s just… a lot to unpack.

“Hey,” she murmurs against my mouth, nipping at my lower lip. “Will you let me touch you, baby? I want to.”

I sough out a breath. “I know. I just⁠—”

She waits for me to continue after I choke off the words, but when it becomes apparent that I’m not going to, she leans in and kisses me again. “Can I show you?”

I blink up at her. Her eyes are like molten gold in the dim light. “Show me what?”