“Are you complimenting me?” she asked, smiling.
“I didn’t do it for an unexpected reward,” he said tongue in cheek.
“But you’re going to get one,” she said, moving closer and putting her lips to his. “Now that I’ve had a taste of you I’m not sure I can stop.”
“Don’t get too used to it.”
Because he wasn’t so sure he could stop either.
“Don’t tease me like this,” she said. “Can’t you just open your mind to it?”
“To what?” he asked.
“To us. We’ve had two deep kisses. Really nice kisses. Two little pecks. We haven’t even had a date.”
He groaned. “Seriously. You want a date?”
“Now I know you’re picking on me.”
“No, you don’t know that. Maybe I just want sex.”
He’d been upfront with her before, he’d do it again. With any luck, it’d turn her off.
“Well, so do I, but I don’t have flings or one-night stands.”
“Neither do I.”
“Somehow I don’t believe that,” she said.
“I don’t anymore,” he said.
Those days were long gone.
They weren’t that frequent either, but he wouldn’t lie and say he hadn’t taken what was offered to him years ago.
“Can I cook for you sometime? We can start small.”
“How about you bake me something and if it tastes good, then we’ll think about dinner?”
She smiled. One that reached her eyes with emotions in the depths that he wished he didn’t witness.
That was the shit that was going to get to him. What he’d been fighting against for years.
To open himself up to feeling any of it always hurt more in the end.
He hurt enough in his life, but wouldn’t admit it.
Saying what he had to Ford last night made him wonder if that was why he was willing to touch Meredith today.
To give into what he’d been fighting.
“If that is the best I can get, then you’ve got a deal. I’m going to go home and start baking. If you’re around tomorrow when I get out of work, I’ll run over some muffins.”
“Or I can come to town and get them later,” he said. “I’ve got a bunch of shit to do.”
“You just want to check out my place,” she said. “And I want to see you later.”
He wanted to scope it out and see if there was a way her ex could break in. He wasn’t so convinced it was ending, but the last thing he wanted to do was scare her.
