Sidequest for Love by L.H. Cosway

“Perhaps I should just tell Callum. Like you said, keeping him in the dark will only make things worse in the long run,” Neil sighed.

I held a hand up. “Shush for a second. I’m thinking.”

“What are you thinking?”

I lifted my gaze to his. “Adam is an incredible hacker. So is my other online friend, Winona. There could be a way for them to hack Annabelle’s computer and phone and wherever else she’s saved copies of the screenshots and delete them. Then, she’d have no evidence. It’d be her word against yours.”

Neil didn’t look convinced. “I don’t know. It seems risky. And illegal. And what if she has them backed up on a USB or a separate hard drive?”

“Okay, true,” I said, pretty sure neither of us was prepared to break into her home and steal this hypothetical hard drive.

Neil blew out an exhausted breath. “I don’t want to break the law anyway. If it weren’t for what she could do to Callum, I’d end this right now. I hate that I was too weak to resist messaging with her. I never should’ve entertained it for a single moment. Fuck, I’m such an idiot.”

I reached out to soothingly rub his arm. “We all have moments of weakness. Don’t beat yourself up. It’s counterproductive at this point.”

“I guess.” He blew out a breath, his eyes yet again running over my outfit. “You look amazing, by the way.” A pause as he frowned. “Why exactly do you look amazing?”

Damn. I was hoping he wouldn’t go back to this. My stomach tensed. “Um … Don’t I always look amazing?”

“Yes, but not like this.”

My throat ran dry.

“Afric?” Neil’s eyes were questioning, and my belly flooded with guilt.

“So,” I said, my voice meek. “I was really mad at you. I thought you’d chosen Annabelle over me, so I was going to …” I couldn’t finish. I already hated the flicker of betrayal in his eyes.

“You were going to what?” he asked, jaw tight.

“I was going to go out to a bar and try to flirt with a random stranger to get back at you,” I blurted rapidly, throwing my hands out. “It was a stupid idea. I already decided against it before you even arrived.”

Neil’s eyes darkened. His eyebrows were angry slashes across his forehead as he stared at me. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Fucking hell, I’m mad at you,” he said in a low, gruff voice.

“You have every right to be.”

A second later, he reached forward, yanking me over onto his lap. I gasped as his hands smoothed over my hips, then ran possessively up my spine before sinking into my hair.

He met my gaze, his eyes hard and passionate. “You can’t just run off and do crazy, irreversible things without talking to me first. That’s not you, Afric. You don’t bury stuff. You say it to my face. What changed?”

I looked away, unable to handle the intensity of his eyes when I responded. “I guess I was just so hurt at the idea of you going to Annabelle because I let you kiss me last night, and that’s not something I agreed to lightly.” I paused and lifted my gaze, hoping my meaning hit home.

His fingers weaved through my hair, kneading at a tight spot at the base of my skull. God, that felt good. His eyes lowered to my mouth. “It’s partly my fault. I should’ve just told you I was going to see Annabelle, but I saw that you were already stressing about the kiss, so I didn’t want to overwhelm you.”

“Can we forgive each other and move on?”

“Yes,” he replied fervently. “But first, if anything like this happens in the future, promise me you’ll ask me about it first before drawing your own conclusions, and I’ll promise to do the same.”

I brought my hand up and wrapped my pinkie around his. “I promise.”

Neil’s expression heated as he brought my hand to his mouth and dragged his lips over my knuckles.

A swift bolt of desire shot through me. Shivers skittered down my spine. “Neil.”

His eyes blazed when I said his name, and his head tilted, a confidently masculine look on his face when he replied teasingly, “Afric.”

“You’re making me come over all peculiar again,” I said breathily.

He smirked. “So long as I make you come, I’m good with that.”

I laughed shyly. “I’ve created a monster.”

He continued massaging my skull, his mouth close when he whispered, “I want to kiss you.”

“Then what are you waiting for?”

Less than a second later, his mouth crashed onto mine with crushing intensity. There was nothing soft or tentative about this kiss, not like the ones he’d given me last night. This kiss held the sheer ferocity of his passion, and it knocked me sideways. I couldn’t remember ever being wanted like this before.

Neil’s tongue dipped out, a silky caress, and I moved my legs, climbing astride him until I felt the delicious thickness in his pants. It slid against my core, and I trembled into the kiss. Neil’s hand tightened in my hair while the other moved down to cup my backside.

He broke the kiss, breathing fast as he growled, “You’re so fucking sexy.” Then, he bent and gently nipped my jaw with his teeth. “I’m obsessed with you.”