A tug at my hand pulled me out of my thoughts.
“You good?” he asked, coming to a stop in front of me, running his hands up and down over my arms.
“Yeah,” I whispered, losing myself a bit in his eyes.Ask for what you want, Elle, I chastised myself. Deep breaths. “Nate?”
He leaned in and kissed my forehead, then stepped back a bit to meet my eyes. “Yeah?”
“Do you think—I mean, don’t you think…” I bit my lip, unsure.
Nate gently brushed a kiss across my lips. “What, babe?”
Go for it.I thought. “Don’t you think we could be done going slow now? I mean—”
I didn’t get the rest of the sentence out as Nate’s mouth was immediately crushed against my own. His lips parted and I wasted no time, my tongue immediately sliding in and finding his. We kissed like we’d be interrupted at any minute and needed to devour each other before that happened. Though, to be fair, in this town someone could be along at any time, so maybe it was time to move this indoors.
I pulled back, chest heaving, and looked at Nate. His eyes were locked on mine.
His lips tipped up into a grin. “So you want to move things along, do you?”
I nodded, possibly vigorously. I mean, I wasn’t hiding anything at this point.
He brushed my hair back and over my shoulder as his other arm slid around my waist. “How much did you have to drink tonight?”
Hold on. I needed to pick myself up off the sidewalk. I mean, seriously.This manwas better with each conversation. “One beer, when I got there. At least three hours ago.”
He nodded as if that made the decision for him, then leaned forward and pressed a kiss on my neck. Then another. And another. Goose bumps rose up everywhere as I contemplated what this could be like without pesky clothing in the way. As his mouth moved back up, it stopped by my ear and he whispered, “Let’s go in.”
My heart threatened to beat out of my chest as I looked from him, then in the direction that he stepped, his arm keeping me next to him. I hadn’t realized we’d stopped in front of his house; my focus had been clearly on getting Nate to eliminate the wordslowfrom his vocabulary.
Moving up the walk, something seemed off. I looked at Nate’s house, trying to piece it together, before stopping in my tracks.
Nate glanced over his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
My eyes tracked over his place, “Where are your welcome-home lights?”
Nate smiled and slipped his arm around my waist again. We moved up the final steps before he unlocked the door and stepped back for me to enter before him. “Why don’t you see for yourself?”
I stepped through his front door and stopped. The living room was lit by the glow from the white lights on the Christmas tree in the corner. We’d brought it home on Tuesday, but Nate had said he usually left it up for a few days before decorating, which allowed the branches to relax a bit.
I’d loved the pine scent which permeated the entire house. My parents were big fans of artificial trees, not wanting to deal with sweeping up needles on the regular. But this tree, sitting in this room and reading next to it, I might become a convert for life.
“You put the lights on,” I said, completely unnecessarily.
“Just the lights,” Nate said, shutting the door and coming to stand behind me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin on my head. “We can decorate it together, but I wanted you to come in and see it all lit up.”
“When did you do this?” I said in a hushed voice. For whatever reason, there was a magical feeling in the air and I didn’t want to disturb it.
“After work before coming to the brewery.”
I turned in his arms and looked up to find that he hadn’t taken his eyes off me. “Nate?”
“Yeah?”
“Thoughts on skipping the bed for our first time and having sex under the tree?” The Ava voice in my head cheered out loud. Maybe Nate had been right to take this slow because I felt far more comfortable asking for what I wanted than I ever had before. I wasn’t questioning it but following my gut.
Nate’s smile widened as he leaned down and captured my mouth with his own. Stepping back, he looked me over. “Babe, that sounds like the best idea you’ve ever had.”
He pressed a kiss to my lips and then stepped back and unzipped his jacket and pulled off his stocking hat, dropping them on the sofa. His brow arched in my direction, so I did the same. We kicked off our shoes and then stepped around the coffee table. Nate ran his hands over my sweater as I unwound my scarf and tossed it over his shoulder toward the couch.
