Sully put his hands on my hips, tugging me to him, and looked long. “Hmm, there it is.”
I’m sure a look of confusion crossed my face. What in the world was he talking about now? “There what is?”
“You’re protecting yourself once again. Holding back.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked. I sounded pissed, and I knew it was irrational. But how did this man know me so well? It was infuriating. He was infuriating.
“Babe.”
“Seriously, Sully. Babe? Is that supposed to be an answer?”
“I’m just trying to decide what answer will get me in the least amount of shit right now,” he muttered, trying and failing to suppress a grin.
“Sully…,” I growled.
“Maggie…,” he parroted back.
We stood there, staring at each other for a beat. Music from the party was floating around us along with sounds of the country. Darkness cocooned us out here, making it feel like we were in our own world even though everyone was just on the other side of the barn. Sully’s hands on my hips tightened, gently adding a bit of pressure to pull me toward him. He was wearing a worn T-shirt from the brewery, and it stretched over his chest. I rested my hands on him there, the thin material between us.
Mmmm, that chest.
“Maggie,” he whispered this time.
I licked my lips without thinking, debating whether pulling him into the grass was something to do when you were stone-cold sober. Technically, the two of us were going to be parents soon, or maybe we already were? How does that work? Do parents have wild sex at parties when they’re within a hundred yards or so of their friends? Certainly they didn’t have sex at a party when the guy’s family was nearby, right? And most importantly, why the hell could I be pissed off at this man and want to scream from the rooftops one minute and want to get busy in the grass the next?
Shit. I really did want to jump him.
“Babe, where did you just go?” Sully was watching me.
I hesitated. I might be nearing certifiable. “Promise not to judge me?”
Sully grinned. “This should be good.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, I had many thoughts beginning with wondering if I should shove you down in this grass, moving on to if that was what parents did, jumping to whether we were already considered parents, ending with whether it was cool to have sex this close to a party.”
I glanced at his incredulous expression. “Well, you asked,” I pointed out. “Oh, and I wondered how I could be angry with you and want to get busy at the same time. It’s like you’re magical.”
Sully pulled me closer, front to front, before saying anything. “One, I fucking love the way your mind works. Two, yes, I consider us parents already. And three, babe, we could drop down in the grass and go for it, but I’d really like to spend all night worshipping your body, and I don’t want to pause to drive home. Besides, mosquito bites are a bitch.”
“Are mosquitoes even out yet?”
“Seriously Maggie? That’s what you’re focusing on in all that I said?”
I laughed. “Well, I do like that you enjoy my mind. I supposed I should have acknowledged that as well,” I glanced up at him. Mmmm. His eyes looked pretty turned on, from what I could tell from the moonlight and the lights from the drive and the house. Maybe it was just wishful thinking that I wasn’t alone here.
Sully lowered his mouth until his lips were at my ear. “Margaret Jameson, I love your quick mind and your hilarious sense of humor. I love your gorgeous hair that reminds me of a sunset in summer. Those eyes remind me of pools of chocolate. But right now, baby, I really just want to get you home because at the top of my list, I truly love when your body isn’t wearing anything, and if that doesn’t happen in the next five minutes, wewillbe dropping to the grass, party and mosquitoes be damned.”
His lips found the sensitive skin right below my ear and pressed soft kisses there while I tried to get my brain to slow down.
He loved,he loved?Surely that was just his other brain talking, right? Actually, let’s be honest here. Who cares at this point?
“Sully?”
“Yeah, babe.”
“Take me home.”
He pulled back, looked in my eyes and, apparently seeing what he wanted there, turned and headed directly for his truck parked in the grass, taking us away from the barn and the party both.
