Sitting in her mostly unfurnished apartment with a half-empty bottle of wine, Austin Daniels finally realized that she had been thinking about Slate North far more than she ever cared to admit. The reasons weren?t limited to her moving into the same New Haven apartment building as him without telling him (because she wouldn?t want to seem like a stalker, now would she?). For days now, she had resisted the urge to walk the six stories from her basement apartment to his with the much better view of the quaint cobbled streets below lit by gas lanterns below.

There was no need to go up and apologize, right? Slate had only taken her out as a favor for Colt or so Austin suspected. Plus, their first date -- a quick cup of coffee at a coffee house not too far from North Private Investigation which Slate owned and operated -- was an unmitigated disaster in which they managed to offend one another and almost get into an argument. But for some reason they?d both agreed to another and that second date? Well, that hadn?t been so much of a disaster. In fact, it had been awfully nice. That had then been followed by Sunday morning and she had bailed on pancake breakfast, leaving only a note. There?d been silence since then. No texts, no phone calls, no messages passed along through Colt. Nothing.

But with getting the apartment so suddenly, and arranging everything to move in, she'd been all consumed. Not to mention she had to make sure she did things at the building when Slate wasn't around made it even tougher. Austin shot a frown at the last swallow of wine in the glass in her hand and then, refusing to allow this to take up more of her brain power than it already had, she lifted the glass and downed the last bit. Setting the glass down on top of cardboard boxes still taped up, she trudged up the flights of stairs. One after another. The elevator was ignored. Maybe she was hoping she would change her mind along the way.

But each step brought her closer. The wine in her blood fueled her on and before she knew it, she was standing before his door. A deep breath was sucked in and she didn't let it out until she'd knocked.

The hallway remained eerily quiet for several long beats. Almost enough beats for Austin to reconsider. However, just as she was about to turn tail and run for the stairs, there was the click of a lock and the door swept open. Slate was dressed down after a long day of work -- ragged but beloved jeans, a faded gray t-shirt advertising some restaurant but with lettering so faded it was hard to narrow down which one. There was no doubting the surprise on his face.

"Austin?"

She almost forgot to breathe when she looked at him. It took her a moment to find her voice. "I'm here, on my figurative knees, to apologize and ask forgiveness." She had her chin lowered demurely, with the faded denim blue eyes looking up at him, properly chastised without him saying a word. "I'm real sorry 'bout Sunday. I swear on Mama's bible it wasn't intentional."

His eyes lifted from her to the door across the hall where a wreath of vines and yellow silk forsythia branches hung from the door beneath the ornate ?6B?. It would be best to let her in before nosy Mrs. B heard all his business. He opened the door wider, sweeping a hand to motion her within. "Come on in."

Austin stepped through the doorway, but she didn't go far. She only stepped off to the side enough that he'd be able to close the door again. She had her fingers stuffed into her front pockets, possibly to keep the nervousness in check. It was far worse tonight than it had been any other time with him. Her stomach felt like it was rolling over on itself. "I admit, I got a little freaked 'bout havin' you there at the same time as the whole famn damily, but that wasn't why I left.? As he closed the door behind her, she let her gaze drop to her own, and then his shoes. "I got a real early call that I just couldn't ignore."

Slate?s arms folded over his chest. A touch of irritation arose through the confusion on his expression but didn?t enter his tone. Instead, his voice remained almost reassuring. "Colt introduced me as his friend. I don't really think anyone looked up from their pancakes. He and I made plans to grab dinner later in the week and I left. Nobody knows we went on a date."

Those blue eyes of hers -- the color of comfy faded denim -- seemed permanently adhered to the direction of the floor. She was happy she had stopped at half that bottle or she'd be nauseous too. Her weight was shifted from one foot to the other and back again, rocking back and forth slightly. ?I hope they didn't mess up the pancakes, I busted my ass on that breakfast," she huffed out. Her voice was bled free of any attitude as she began again. "I know I should have called, or sent you a text before you got there. I.. I just wanted to apologize in person, not on a text... I'll see ya around"

One of her hands reached out for the door knob and as badly as he wanted to grab it and hold it, Slate resisted. He took a step back away from the door so that it could be opened. "Well... thank you."

?I?m really... really...? Her words came out in a tumbled rush as she pulled the door open but something in them seemed to exhaust her. The door was only opened several inches before it was shut and her shoulders fell against it to help keep her upright. Her eyes lifted to his blue ones but unlike her warm, familiar shade of blue, his were an icy cold shade.

Circles, that was the direction her mind was headed and her body couldn?t seem to help but follow. Pushing off the door with a sudden surge of bravery, she approached. Some sort of emotion flickered across his expression but it was gone too quickly for her to recognize it as hope. Not being able to identify that emotion drained her of the sudden courage and she turned back towards the door with a quick shake of her head. But she never made it back. If she didn?t get this off her mind, off her heart... well, she?d never stop thinking about it. Drawing in a deep breath, Austin turned to face Slate and her words came out in a rush of an exhale. "I'mReallyAttractedToYouAndItsFreakin'MeOut... But that still aint why I bailed on Sunday... "

As she turned and her hand reached for the door once more, Slate took a step forward, closing his hand around her wrist. ?The why did you bail on Sunday??

"I got a call about a place to rent, but I had to go right then or I wouldn't have gotten it. I wouldn't have bailed otherwise, I was lookin' forward to it." Although the subject matter didn?t call for it, her voice was an intimate, barely audible whisper.

The rest of the distance between them was closed by a slow determined step forward as Slate lost the urge to remain safely disengaged from the conversation. Either she would say what he wanted to hear or she would shoot holes in his hopes. But either way he needed to hear it. He either needed to let thoughts of Austin go and move forward or... well, he wasn't sure what lay on the other side of the fence.

"You left me to deal with your family by myself. Not even a text. And you hadn't even let me know that they all would be there. Pancakes with your family isn't really third date material, is it? So what were you trying to say? You'd rather be friends?"

"Friends?" She watched his face carefully, looking for signs of a reaction to her words. She was scared as hell to let anything show on her own face, but she was just as scared not too. Her mind quickly rationalized that if she was way off base, he at least wouldn't think her a stalker if he ever found out where she was living. And she could always go home to Georgia. A scooch of a step was taken closer to him as her eyes fell from his face to the hand on her wrist. Slowly, she turned her arm in his grip and interlaced her fingers through his. His hand was strong and warm just like she had expected it would be.

"No, I don't wanna be friends, Slate."

The empath was confident that his own emotion was intense enough not to be swayed by those licks of fear he felt through the mental wall he kept in place to block out hers. Therefore, he lowered it and allowed a rush of her feelings to sweep forward. Maybe it was the combination of the emotions they both felt or maybe it was the confirmation that she felt the same way that allowed him to proceed the way he had wanted to since she had walked in the door. Either way, his opposite to land it on her hip, pressing her back into the door while leaning in for the solid kiss he had been kicking himself for not going in for at the end of their last date.

She went up onto her toes a little to press further into the kiss. Her grip tightened on his hand, not quite white knuckling it but close. Her fears were definitely there, invading his mind, but the feel of his lips against hers was definitely pushing those fears further and further to the back burner. If Colt put him up to this, for the moment, she didn't care. Her free hand lifted to his chest and rested there, the nervous energy and rush of less than wholesome thoughts filtered into a very slightly trembling hand.

The door at her back and an incredibly handsome man in front of her? Who wouldn't be a little shaky?! At least it didn't go all the way to her lips. No, Her lips were pretty solid in their resolve to stay pressed to his.

The hand on her hip lifted to her face. His fingers trailed their way down her jaw bone as he slowly pulled back. But not far. He remained hovering just nearby, using his body to keep her against the door. His lips dipped in towards her ear, placing a kiss just beside her earlobe before whispering softly. "What do you want?"

She turned her head just enough to keep it pressed against his, her lips grazing across his cheek on the way to his ear. Despite the fact that her stomach was doing acrobatics and her heart was running marathon in her chest, she managed to find enough breath to whisper back. "I want to get to know Slate North".

"I'd like to get to know you too, Austin Daniels."