Page 21 of Catching Flynn

“It’s one bite.”

“There you go again, charming me into something, Mr. Ariotto.” His mate smiled across the table. “You are such a bad influence. My potted plants are going to wilt aggressively at you.”

Zavier chuckled, completely enchanted by

The words were said teasingly, but Zavier felt them settle inside as he kept his hand steady.

After a beat, Flynn leaned forward and took the bite. His lips brushed the fork, and that tiny contact sent heat straight to Zavier cock. He wanted to spread Flynn over the table and lick syrup from his squirming body.

Chewing, Flynn closed his eyes for half a second. “Okay. That’s criminal.”

“Couldn’t believe how good it was either.”

Flynn swallowed and licked a smear of powdered sugar from his lower lip. Zavier had to look at his coffee before he did something reckless in the middle of a diner. “I hate when you’re right. You’re very smug about it.”

“I’m not smug,” Zavier argued.

Flynn laughed under his breath. “You’re sitting there built like a felony in a fitted T-shirt while pretending you don’t know exactly what you’re doing. That’s smug.”

Zavier took another swallow of coffee. “You say wild shit with a straight face.”

“That was not wild. That was observational science.” Flynn cut into the eggs he hadn’t ordered and frowned at them. “These are the fluffiest scrambled eggs I’ve ever seen.”

Zavier watched him stab at the plate and wanted, absurdly, to keep him in this booth all day. Let the world narrow to coffee, diner noise, and his mate talking himself around the edge of panic.

“You’re settling faster than I expected,” Zavier said.

Flynn shrugged, but the motion lacked the brittle edge from earlier. “Panic burns hot and fast. Sarcasm is renewable.” He glanced up. “Also, being around Zack helps. Colton too, weirdly. You definitely help. Might even be at the top of my list.”

His mate’s fork stopped midway to his mouth. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“That is such bullshit.” Flynn set the fork down and leaned on the table a little. “You got all quiet and your eyes did a weird, googly thing.”

The man had no idea what he did to him. How hard it had been to act professional when all Zavier wanted to do was wrap his mate in his arms.

He let his gaze hold. “Googly?”

Color rose along Flynn’s cheekbones. “Don’t make it weird.”

“Nothing weird about flirting, little kitty.”

A choked laugh escaped his mate, then he dropped his forehead into one hand. “You cannot say things like that while I’m holding gravy.”

“Why not?”

“Because I suck at flirting. Horribly. I’ll have you changing your zip code.”

Ohio g turned Zavier on more that when his mate became flustered and blushed. Like a drug shot straight into Zavier’s veins.

Fucking adorable.

Zavier smiled into his mug, so damn pleased. Before finding his mate, he’d thrown himself into his work, rarely coming up for air. It was the only way to numb the loneliness. To forget his forever person was still out there somewhere.

He’d taken jobs across the globe, expanding his search. And all it had taken was a phone call from his former boss. Now here he was, seated across from the man he’d searched centuries for.

Flynn was everything Zavier could’ve hoped for. The way Flynn’s mind worked fascinated him.