“Yeah?”
He gestured at his erection, then at her legs. “I’m an open book here, babe. Yes, please. Wear those shorts and drive me nuts.”
* * *
As much ashe didn’t want to break up their unexpected and painfully good kissing, the lavender maze proved to be a curiously good thing.
For one thing, they had it to themselves. And it was massive, an entire field of purple. The bushes were still low to the ground, baby plants. The woman who greeted them said that by the end of the summer, the bushes would be big enough that they couldn’t be stepped over. Right now, though, at the end of spring, the maze was more a mental challenge than a physical one.
The other surprising thing about the maze was what it did to their conversation. As they ran into dead ends and had to figure out which path to take to make progress, they had to slow down what they were talking about, almost as if the maze was making them think more about what the other person was saying before they could reply.
“Tell me more about your good mood,” he said as they backtracked from their first wrong turn.
“Work is going well.” She stopped, looked forwards and back, then pointed ahead. “This way.”
“And you got chocolates.”
“Yep.”
“And the taco date went well…”
She spun around, her hair cascading around her face as she gave him a gleeful look. “It did. As is my lavender maze date, too.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“The maze?” She winked at him over her shoulder. “Or my date with Evan?”
“That.”
“Doyouwant to talk about it?”
“Maybe. And I’d like to talk about that kiss you laid on me, too.”
“That was fun.”
No denying that. “So you’re having a good week.”
“I am.”
He was genuinely happy for her. “Good.”
She told him a little about the date, and how there hadn’t been a repeat yet because Evan was in Europe for a week now.
“He travels a lot, eh?”
“Yeah.” She stopped at a crossroads in the maze. “Go ahead a bit, tell me if this is a dead end. I’ll stay here and remember which direction we came from.”
Even though they could see the edge of the field, they had gotten turned around a bit. Brent had taken note of their starting position—they’d entered the maze from the southeast, so they needed to eventually turn back that way to get out—but she had a point. He stalked forward and investigated. Sure enough, there was nowhere to go after two turns.
He strolled back, enjoying the walk towards her—and the view.
“Stop looking at me like that,” she whispered. “No, I take that back. Keep looking at me like that, we’re all alone.”
“Get me out of this maze and I’ll do more than look,” he murmured before kissing her. “If you want me to.”
“I think I do, yeah.” She cupped his face, her fingers cool against his skin. “Is that okay? If we fool around and I’m happy about my date with Evan, and…I know this is complicated.”
There was only one answer there. “What doyouwant?”
