Persephone should have known something had shifted between her and Bradley long before today. Aside from her newfound, glaring desire to stick her tongue down his throat, she should have known something was different when she found herself actively looking forward to his long, nonsensical tirades as he rambled incessantly firing out the first and most bizarre string of words in whatever order he saw fit. She no longer looked at him like he needed a psychiatric evaluation, but instead with great fondness.
Right now, however, she needed him to shut up and kiss her.
“Uhuh, yeah. That’s it, I’m giving you a good send-off,” she laughed, sweetly parting his lips with her tongue and swallowing the rest of his words.
This time, he met her pace and the two were wrapped up in each other in perfect synchronicity, Persephone humming sweetly as she felt his hand slide into her hair. They were positioned awkwardly, with Persephone perched between his knees while he remained seated – though, admittedly, his obscene height meant they weren’t entirely unmatched. All the same, she decided to take advantage of how pliant he was being by lowering herself down to perch on his knee as she curled in and against his body. Her arm curled around his neck as she used it as leverage to pull herself in against him, her chest now plush against his.
When she heard his gentle utterance of wow, a whimper spilled from Sephy’s lips and she immediately blushed, eyes widening as she pulled back to break the kiss.
“Do not let that go to your head,” she laughed, before moving back in.
This time, her lips peppered along his jaw instead, allowing them both a brief release as Bradley caught his breath. Sephy nipped experimentally at the lobe of his ear, wanting to savour this tiny, playful moment. It was a rare thing that she got to explore another man’s mouth and not feel sick to her stomach after, or that she could allow the press of his hands against her without needing to get high first. It was such a relief to her nervous system that she thought she might cry.
“Do you still want your gift? Or would that cut into our makeout time?” she teased, lips a breath away from his ear. Heat pooled in the pit of her stomach as she readjusted herself, climbing more firmly into his lap. If he wanted to stop now, she wouldn’t mind, but she also knew she’d be more than content if this was all they did with the rest of their afternoon.
Bradley couldn’t fathom how the hell he had managed this.
It had been one thing to realise that he no longer made Sephy roll her eyes whenever he spoke or stare at him like he’d grown another head. Or rather, she still did that, but there was an undercurrent of fondness in her voice whenever she called him a moro, one that Bradley was sure he wasn’t imagining. Reckoning with the idea of being Persephone Blake’s friend was hard enough. And he wasn’t talking about Persephone Blake the actress, but Sephy, the spiky blonde baker who had slowly lowered her hackles the more he got to know her. That had been a feat in itself. He’d never once imagined that he’d work his way around to somehow being someone she wanted to kiss.
Like hell was he going to blow what was probably his one shot at something teenage boys around the country would take his head clean off his shoulders for a chance at.
He felt Sephy perch lightly on his knee and immediately curled his arms around her. Long, bony fingers, riddled with papercuts from turning comic book pages too quickly, pressed into the soft material of her shirt as Bradley pulled her closer, not altogether sure if his leg was the comfiest place for her to be.
The noise she let out suggested otherwise.
Bradley’s eyes widened. He couldn’t help it. A smile stretched across his face that he was sure she would either kiss or smack off. He definitely had a preference.
“Let what go to my head? The fact that, against all odds, you kissed me? And liked it? Kissed me first, mind you. It’s almost like you like me or something,” he grinned.
His smug superiority could only last so long once he felt Sephy’s lips against his jaw and her teeth on his earlobe.
“Ah,” he hissed, the sharp noise involuntary, tipping his head up eagerly. His grip tightened on her as he pressed his lips together, dazedly catching her eye.
“‘Kay, now we’re even,” he mumbled. “Get back here. Fuck the surprise.”
And then they were kissing again. He couldn’t think of anything that could be more important than kissing Sephy right now, even if his curiosity did tick away at his reserve for a few seconds too long. A wet smacking sound filled the air between them as their lips separated again and he inched back ever so slightly to give her a suspicious look, his hands busy with helping Sephy situate herself better in his lap.
“Wait, no seriously, is this a good or a bad surprise? Are you doing this to soften the blow about something else?”
