Chapter 186: Stop Teasing Me

Luke spent the next twenty minutes discovering that cold water was considerably less helpful than he had hoped.

He stood beneath the shower with his right arm kept away from the strongest spray, staring at the tiles while his mind replayed everything that had happened in the kitchen. Lauren against the counter, her fingers in his hair, the quiet sound she had made when he kissed her, and then her hand closing around his wrist before things went any further.

And Shaw.

Luke lowered his forehead against the cool tile.

"I really do hate that man."

The bathroom door muffled his voice well enough that Lauren probably couldn’t hear him this time.

Probably.

After finishing the shower, Luke dried himself carefully, changed into loose clothes, and stepped into the hallway just as Lauren was coming the other way. She had already changed out of her café clothes and into a robe tied securely around her waist. It reached almost to her knees and wasn’t particularly revealing, which did absolutely nothing to help.

Luke had spent too much time around her to be fooled by fabric anymore. He knew exactly what kind of body the robe was hiding, and after what had happened in the kitchen, his imagination seemed determined to remind him.

Lauren caught him looking, and a faint smile appeared before Luke could pretend otherwise.

"That’s not fair."

She paused but didn’t ask what he meant. Instead, she let her gaze linger on his face for a moment, clearly enjoying his discomfort, before turning toward the bathroom again.

"Good night, Luke."

The amusement in her voice told him she knew exactly what she was doing.

"You’re evil."

Her quiet laugh followed her through the bathroom door.

Luke remained in the hallway for several seconds, rubbing his face with his left hand as he realized he had created this problem himself. Earlier in their relationship, Lauren could have teased him exactly like that and he would have escaped into the bedroom before his face caught fire. Now part of him wanted to follow her.

Obviously, he wasn’t going to.

With his luck, Shaw would somehow sense it from across the city and appear in the bathroom holding a neurological chart.

Luke returned to the bedroom and climbed into bed. He and Lauren had been sleeping together long enough that sharing it no longer felt unusual, but her empty side still carried enough traces of her to make ignoring her difficult. One of the pillows smelled faintly of her shampoo, and his mind immediately returned to the kitchen.

He tried thinking about training instead.

That lasted perhaps ten seconds.

The café managed five.

His upcoming neurological review should have been safer, but thinking about that immediately reminded him why Lauren had stopped him downstairs in the first place.

Luke groaned and covered his face with his left hand.

This was useless.

Eventually, the shower stopped, and a few minutes later Lauren entered the bedroom wearing a loose sleep shirt and shorts. Luke immediately became fascinated by the ceiling while she closed the door and climbed into bed beside him.

The mattress shifted as she settled against the pillows, but Luke continued staring upward with enough concentration to make the blank paint seem interesting.

After a while, Lauren spoke.

"You know, you can tell me if I take the teasing too far."

That pulled his attention away from the ceiling. When Luke turned toward her, he found none of the amusement he had expected.

"I know."

"I mean it. If you want me to stop, I will."

Luke hesitated, but the answer escaped before he could soften it.

"I don’t."

Lauren became very still.

Heat crawled up Luke’s neck as he realized how quickly he had answered, yet for once, he resisted the urge to take it back or turn it into a joke.

"I don’t want you to stop," he said more quietly.

Lauren studied him for several seconds before giving a small nod.

"Okay."

Nothing else followed. There was no joke and no pleased little smile, even though Luke had expected both. Somehow, that made the answer feel more important.

He turned onto his side, and Lauren shifted to face him. A few damp strands of black hair rested against her cheek.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

Luke looked down between them, where his left hand rested near hers on the blanket, but the words refused to come immediately. Lauren didn’t rush to fill the silence, which eventually made it easier for him to continue.

"You keep doing that."

"The teasing?"

Luke nodded.

"You get close. You kiss me, or touch me, or say something that makes it impossible to think straight, and then you stop."

Lauren’s expression changed.

"Tonight was different."

"I know. I’m not only talking about tonight."

As Luke rubbed his thumb against the blanket, Lauren remained quiet and let him work through whatever he was trying to say. That somehow made it harder, but he forced himself to keep going.

"I like it. I really do. I just don’t always know what you expect me to do."

Her eyebrows drew together slightly, and Luke looked away before continuing.

"You always seem like you know exactly where the line is. I don’t. For a long time, I assumed everything was teasing unless you made it really obvious because if I guessed wrong, I didn’t want to make things weird between us."

"But we’re past that now."

The softness in her voice made him look back.

"That’s the problem."

Lauren waited.

"We’re actually together now. So when you kiss me like you did downstairs and then walk away smiling, I don’t know if I’m supposed to let you go, follow you, kiss you again, or just stand there while you enjoy watching me suffer."

Her lips twitched, but she stopped herself from smiling.

Luke noticed.

"I’m serious."

"I know."

For several seconds, he stared at her while deciding whether he really wanted to say the next part aloud. Eventually, the question that had been bothering him won.

"Are you actually going to do something someday, or is this just fun for you?"

The bedroom fell silent.

Luke almost wished she would tease him now, because that would have been easier than watching her expression turn thoughtful. Instead, Lauren pushed herself higher against the pillows and reached for his left hand.

"Come here."

Luke sat beside her, and Lauren took his hand between both of hers.

"When I stop, it isn’t because I don’t want you."

His throat tightened.

Lauren glanced toward the support on his right wrist before continuing.

"Tonight, I stopped because you’re still recovering, and neither of us was getting more sensible. But I’ve been careful before tonight too."

Luke watched her take her time finding the next words.

"You’re eighteen. I’m much older than you. When we first met, you needed somewhere to sleep, food, work, almost everything."

His expression tightened slightly.

"I know what it sounds like when I say it that way," Lauren continued. "But that mattered to me."

"Why?"

"Because I needed to be sure you could say no."

Luke stared at her as her thumb moved slowly across his knuckles.

"I didn’t want you doing anything because you felt grateful, because you thought you owed me, or because you were afraid saying no might change what I was willing to do for you."

"I never thought that."

"I know."

Luke shook his head.

"No. I mean I never thought I had to give you anything."

Lauren met his eyes, and this time there was no hesitation in her answer.

"I believe you."

Some of the tension left Luke’s shoulders.

Lauren looked down at their joined hands as she admitted that it had simply taken her longer to stop questioning whether she might be putting him in that position. Luke had never considered that side of it. She had always seemed so confident about everything between them that he hadn’t imagined her worrying about whether she might be the one crossing a line.

"And then everything else happened," Lauren continued. "Powerforge. The Bureau. Lethariel. The Hunt."

Luke let out a quiet breath. Their lives had been absurd for so long that hearing the list almost sounded normal.

"Every time it seemed like we might have time to figure us out, something else needed us."

"And now?"

Lauren looked at him.

"Now you’re home."

Her gaze dipped briefly toward his injured wrist.

"And hurt."

"Working on that."

"I know."

Her fingers tightened around his hand before she looked back into his eyes.

"But none of that changes the important part. I want you."

Luke’s heart beat harder.

The words shouldn’t have surprised him. They had been kissing for months, they slept in the same bed, and she had practically told him the same thing downstairs. Hearing her say it without teasing felt different.

"How much?"

Lauren blinked.

Luke nearly backed down, but when a faint flush appeared across her cheeks, something inside him straightened. For once, she was the one searching for an answer, and he decided not to help her.

After several seconds, Lauren moved closer, slid one hand behind his neck, and kissed him.

The kiss wasn’t rough or overwhelming. It was slow enough that Luke felt every second of it, and when she finally pulled away, their faces remained close.

"Enough that stopping tonight wasn’t easy."

Luke swallowed.

"Good."

Lauren stared at him.

Heat climbed into his face as he realized what he had said, but this time he didn’t take it back. When Lauren smiled without mocking him, Luke found himself smiling too.

For a few seconds, they remained close before he rested his forehead against hers.

"So what happens now?"

Lauren considered the question.

"We stop making each other guess. If you want something, tell me. If I want something, I’ll tell you."

Luke pulled back enough to look at her.

"That sounds much easier when you say it."

"It probably won’t be."

That, at least, sounded honest.

They settled back against the pillows. The tension hadn’t disappeared. If anything, knowing that Lauren genuinely wanted him had made it worse, but it no longer felt like Luke was wandering through a game where only she knew the rules.

After a while, Lauren reached for his hand again.

"Tomorrow night."

Luke looked at her.

She seemed calm, but the way her fingers held his told him she wasn’t completely unaffected either.

"We talk properly," Lauren said. "About what you want."

Luke’s stomach tightened.

She paused before adding, "And what I want."

That part hit harder.

He studied her for a moment, then drew a breath and nodded.

"Yeah. I want to."

Her fingers squeezed his.

"Then tomorrow."

Luke lay back down while Lauren switched off the bedside light and settled beside him. A moment later, she moved closer and rested her head against his chest, careful not to put pressure on his injured wrist, and Luke slipped his left arm around her.

The room became quiet, but his mind did not.

Tomorrow night.

Luke stared into the darkness, thinking about how he had faced monsters, Ruinborn villains, and a gate leading somewhere that definitely should not exist.

For some reason, telling Lauren what he wanted felt considerably more dangerous.