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‘Throw-together pasta…’

‘Which was delicious.’ He kissed her hand. ‘And then s’mores…’

‘Which I made you cook.’

‘For the record, anything toasted on an open fire doesn’t count as cooking. It’s just fun. And you turned your living room into a cinema.’ He gestured to where the projector still flickered against the wall as characters he couldn’t remember the names of took part in some fictional event he couldn’t care less about.

‘It’s not really an enchanted woodland lit by spell jars and magic.’

‘No, but there’s definitely something to be said for snuggling up with a film.’ He squeezed her.

‘Even one you didn’t watch most of?’ She tickled her fingers up his arm.

‘Neither did you.’

‘I was distracted.’ She trailed her fingers over his hip in a way that definitely couldn’t be mistaken for idle.

‘Mia.’ He caught hold of her wrist, stopping the distracting sensation. ‘It’s not Friday.’

‘I didn’t think that mattered any more. Besides, isn’t there some sort of tradition around third-date expectations?’

‘Third?’

‘Coffee and a sandwich counts.’

‘Coffee is a rubbish second date.’

‘I’m still counting it. Besides, not every date we’re going to share – and you need to know I’m planning a lot more of them – will be bathed in firelight or movie projectors and spell jars. I know sometimes you’ll be heading back for your mum, and sometimes we’ll be stealing time between appointments and other responsibilities. Not every date will be romance movie epic and, personally speaking, I don’t need them to be. Just so long as you’re there.’

‘You know, it makes it a lot harder for me to resist you when you say things like that.’

‘Really?’ She bit her bottom lip as she smiled at him, and he was pretty sure every spare drop of his blood headed south at the look in her eyes.

‘Yeah, and it’s even harder when you look at me like that.’

‘Why do you want to resist me?’ She twisted round to face him better, all pretence of watching the film gone.

He took a deep breath. ‘Honestly? I’m still trying to do things differently with you than I have with others in the past, because I want things to be different with you. I want to be better. And prove my “man whore” days are well and truly over.’

‘Are you trying to prove that to me, or to yourself? Because you don’t need to prove anything to me.’

‘I don’t?’

‘No. I already know who you are, Aiden. In and out of bed. And more than that, I like you. In and out of bed.’

‘Yeah?’ As new and weird as the idea was to him, he liked it.

‘Of course I do.’ She laughed like it was the most obvious thing in the world, exasperation and amusement warring across her face. ‘And I miss you.’

The way she was looking at him, her skin against his, already had him dizzy with desire, but those four words were his undoing.

His hand was still on her wrist, and her position made it easy to tug her against him so she was pressed warmly against his side, where he could lean in slightly to press light, teasing kisses against her lips. And it was perfect. Her words echoed around his mind as he held her against him: She missed him. In and out of bed.

With others, sex had just been something fun – an easy and relatively healthy way to relieve stress and distract himself from the darker things in life. And it was something he very specifically kept separate and disentangled from the rest of his life. But Mia was right there, and she knew everything – all of those darker, scarier things that took up his waking moments and tormented him when he should have been sleeping – and she was still there, feeling oh so perfect as she pressed against him and kissed him, weaving the fingers of one hand through his hair.

He’d intended to keep things sweet and gentle but Mia wrapped her spare hand around his neck, her fingers tightening to the perfect pressure that made him ache for even more. After a few sweet kisses, she pressed against him more tightly and parted his lips with her tongue. The taste of her was intoxicating and he suddenly couldn’t remember why he was holding back. When she scraped her teeth over his lower lip before kissing him so hard that it almost hurt, his mind whited out and he snaked his spare arm around her back, dragging her up and tightly against him so he could lose himself, devouring her mouth.

She pulled back after a few seconds, her hand not releasing its grip while she looked at him, her eyes searching his face before she leaned into him again, this time kissing him sweetly and slowly, stealing his breath and senses.