I hold the large plastic bag and grab empty plates and bottles, shoving them inside. A nearby couple sit entwined, others talk or laugh inside the house or ended their talking and laughing for unconscious sleep on the sofa. Aaron joins me in gathering the aftermath and shoving rubbish into the bag.

“I thought you were gaming?” I ask him as I tip a half empty beer into a bowl.

“Everybody stopped.” He takes the bottle and drops it into the bag. “I always thought you were joking about Tyler faceplanting on his keyboard and falling asleep. Seems you’re right.”

I smile. “I hope you weren’t raiding without me.”

“We wouldn’t dare.” He holds out a hand and touches the prosthetic ear. Our earlier conversation hangs as heavy as the humidity in the air around us; my heart leaps into overdrive.

I inhale calm, but with it comes Aaron’s inviting scent. Shit. I step sideways towards more empty plates.

“This is falling off,” he says.

“Oh.” I drop the bag and pull at my fake ear, and it falls away. “Hmm. I’d best take the other off otherwise I’ll look even sillier.”

The glue on the other ear is stronger, and I have trouble removing the prosthetic. I laugh to myself.

“What’s funny?” asks Aaron.

“I need help pulling my ear off.”

Aaron laughs too. “Here.” Deft fingers slide beneath the ear, touching the skin as he does and I take a sharp intake of breath.

He’s closer than ever. Touching. His mingled scent of the beer he drank and the expensive scent I caught before surround him. I hold my breath as he finishes his strange task and holds out the ear.

Then I giggle.

I bloody giggle. Stupid, girly Evie around her stupid, girly crush. “You pulled my ear off.” See, told you I shouldn’t have drunk anything.

“You asked me to. Anything else you want me to take off?” He cocks a suggestive eyebrow.

“Sure. Your shirt.”

He shakes his head at my comeback. “If you want.”

“I was kidding.”

He shakes his head and picks up a red drink nearby. “Finish your healing potion, it’ll make you feel better.”

“How do you know that’s mine?”

“I’ve seen you with several, I’m presuming this is yours too.”

To make a point, I tip the contents into the bowl filled with dregs and drop the bottle in the bag. “I don’t need any more.”

“Sit and talk to me. Let someone else clear up the mess.”

“I’m surprised Erin isn’t doing this. She’s the tidy freak.”

“Nah, she disappeared with Cole.”

My ears prick up. “Really? Where?”

He shakes his head. “None of my business. No idea.” Aaron yanks out a plastic chair and sits. “Sorry I was rude and walked off before. It doesn’t take much for me to become caught up in game talk.”

“All good.”

“It’s great to be around others I spend so many hours gaming with online. Normal people don’t understand, do they?”

“Normal people.” I laugh and pull a chair out to sit opposite him. “I get what you mean though, I thought I’d be able to understand you better if we were face to face, but you’re as hidden as you are behind a computer screen. I can’t tell if you’re sarcastic or serious.”

“Says the girl with no filter.” He leans forward. “I find you easily readable, Evie.”

I shiver. “Am I?”

“Yes.” The chair creaks as he shifts positions, body edging closer.

Oh holy crap, no. “You keep calling me Evie. You never have before.”

“Because Evie is sitting in front of me, not a two-dimensional set of pixels. Can I tell you something?”

“You usually speak your mind.”

Aaron glances around. We’re half-shadowed, nobody else nearby. “You weren’t what I expected.”

“Neither were you.”

He lowers his voice. “No, I mean do you realise what a huge bloody shock seeing you today was? You look nothing like I imagined.”

The tension between us switches, fuse lit.

“And why are you shocked by me?” I ask.

We refuse to move, another Sin and Thor challenge resting beneath Aaron and Evie’s inevitable moment. But who moves first?

“Because you’re freaking gorgeous. I actually really liked the Evie I’ve become friends with online, and wanted to meet you, but didn’t expect you to look like this.”

I need to change this conversation because if he even remotely implies he wants his hands on me, I’ll oblige in seconds. “How drunk are you?”

“Don’t put yourself down.”

I stiffen as his knee touches mine. “You have no idea how surprised I was by how you look.”

He smirks. “I was looking forward to seeing your reaction after all those snarky comments about my real appearance. We both bought into the ‘how gamers look’ clichés, huh?”

“I guess we did.” I stand, aware I need to move away before I do something I’ll enjoy but regret. “I should finish up, I’m tired.”

Aaron grabs my hand, warming my cool fingers, and fireworks burst under my skin, shooting up my arm. “Are we duelling again?”

“What makes you say that?”

Aaron drops my hand and stands too, his frame blocking sight of the house, of everything but the intense man looking down at me. “Your defences are up.”

“You’re the one who’s spent the evening deflecting.”

“Drop your barrier, then, and I will too.” Aaron steps closer, with a self-assurance I’d expect from a man like him, and he touches my face.

Aaron waits and I don’t respond, as if he silenced me with a game ability. He moves closer, mouth almost—but not—touching mine.

Waiting.

What the hell do I do?

What do I do? What I don’t do is overthink this and instead enjoy the moment: a man as freaking hot as Aaron is attracted to me. I reach out and run the back of my hand against his rough cheek, connecting with the warmth, as if checking he’s really here. My fantasy Thorsday, the mysterious man with the sexy voice, who I haven’t managed to stop ogling at every opportunity since I saw him.

I close my eyes. “Are we still Thor and Sin?”

“No. Aaron and Evie.”

He curls a hand around the back of my head, and I’m unable to contain my body’s reaction to him. Men? I can take or leave them the first time we meet. None ever fired a desire to get down and dirty with them until we’d kissed or touched. This guy? Holy mother of all things hot and forbidden. Aaron doesn’t need to touch me, or even look at me in any particular way and my body lights up. He could offer me a drink and all I’d hear are the words ‘would you like me naked?’

Now he’s close and his body language suggests something along those lines.

“Thorsday crits Sinestre. Crushing blow,” I mumble and push my lips against his.

Aaron laughs against my mouth and grips my head to him. His kiss is rough, powerful, hungry, and I kiss him harder than I have a man for years. He’s intoxicating; the frustration this guy’s caused me in recent weeks spills out.

In the evening, on the deck, beneath the party lights and cicadas serenading, I tease out the passion I always knew lies carefully hidden inside this taciturn man. Right now, I’d shamelessly like to discover what lies not so carefully hidden beneath his clothes too. His arms around my waist, mine in his hair, we click like puzzle pieces in a picture we can’t solve yet.

I stumble against his feet as I attempt to push myself closer and he places a hand above me on the wall, the other on my ass holding me against him, and the need shakes through. How? He’s only kissed me. This is insane.

I wrench my mouth away. “Holy crap, Aaron.”

He brushes fingers across my swollen lips, eyes burning to reflect the fire he’s lit inside me. “So what do we do now?”