After a moment of hesitation, Lena lifted on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Thank you.”
That short ass peck on the cheek wasn’t half of what I wanted from her. But given that we were in public, of sorts, I would have to make do with what was deemed appropriate. So, I wrapped my hand around the back of her head and brought our lips to touch.
The electric pulse that passed between us on that kiss was probably enough to keep this hot air balloon in the air for at least a few more hours.
But I didn’t dwell on hot air balloon rides or even the Hill Country that was the backdrop to our first kiss.
I pulled her in close to me, blanketing her with my body. Lena, for her part, wasn’t a shrinking violet when it came to the kiss. She ran her tongue across the bottom of my lip, tasting me as I savored her.
“Shit,” I grunted when I pulled back, holding her at arm’s length. If I didn’t, I feared I’d rip her damn dress off of her and have the Texas hills echo with shouts of my name.
But we weren’t alone.
A slow smile spread across my lips when I took in the shocked expression on Lena’s face.
“We’ll be doing that again,” I promised before pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“Ready for breakfast, folks?” Rick asked, pulling me out of a daze.
As part of the ride, I’d planned to land in an open field where we would have a picnic breakfast.
“Yeah,” I replied, staring Lena in her eyes.
Chapter 12
Lena
I felt giddy as I passed through the open door toward the parking lot of The Rustic. It was almost midnight, and Gabe and I had just completed two games of pool against a couple of guys who were pissed that they lost.
“Count it and make sure it’s all there,” Gabe ordered from behind me.
“Bossy, much?”
“Absolutely,” he said before smacking my backside.
I yelped and glared at him but then pulled out the wad of cash in my bag. I fanned out the money in my hands as we strolled toward Gabe’s car.
“Twenty, forty, sixty,” I counted, finally stopping at, “Five hundred smackeroos.” I waved the money in the air like a fool.
It wasn’t the money so much. It was the high I felt from the entire day. First the hot air balloon ride, then Gabe had a breakfast picnic in the park all set up for us, followed by go-karts in town, lunch, an exploration of a nearby city, and we ended the night with dinner and a stop at The Rustic for some fried ice cream.
Dessert had turned into me demanding a replay in a game of pool to prove I could beat Gabe.
I lost again, but then a couple of guys asked if we wanted to play for more exciting stakes. It turns out, Gabe and I make a pretty competitive team.
“We cleaned up in there.” I laughed out loud and fanned myself with the money. It was completely silly and possibly dangerous depending on who saw me with this money in my hand, but again, the giddiness won out.
“If I knew you were this competitive when we first met, I would’ve bet higher. We could’ve hustled them for a lot more.”
“Your loss.” I pointed at him. “Hey,” I said, glancing around and mainly seeing empty spaces. “I know it’s late, but it feels early.” I wasn’t tired, and more so, I wasn’t ready for our time together to end. “Let’s go for a drive.”
“Did you have a destination in mind?” he asked.
I shook my head. “You know this area better than I do. I don’t care where, just somewhere,” I said, not ready to admit out loud that I didn’t want to part ways with him yet.
He seemed to hesitate, his smile dropping a little.
My heart sank. Maybe I’d gone too far, too fast. We had a great day together, and there was no need to push it further than that. He was probably sick of me by now.
