Also, he’s quite the distraction. This is the first time I’ve thought about the issues with the men I’ve dated.
“Yeah. I like him.” Might as well admit it.
And Maisie smiled broadly. “Well, just so you know, I’m taking credit for this relationship of yours.” She waves her finger in my face. “And this good mood you’re in.” That part is sarcastic.
She can have all the credit she wants for my meeting Walker. Without her, not only would I have succumbed to the sadness of my recent break up, I wouldn’t know all the great things about him, either. Wouldn’t know how he looked when he came—lips parted, eyelids half mast. How his kiss tasted-usually like lip balm and sometimes whisky. How his entire body stiffened, and he held me almost too tight.
I’m probably in that honeymoon stage that happens after the first time a couple has sex. Certainly, no guy is so perfect.
“I’m scared, Maisie.” And I don’t mind telling her. She’s one of the few people I tell my secrets to. “I don’t pick great guys. I mean they come out of the gate like Secretariat, but by the time they’re round the first turn, it’s all glue factory and flavored dog food.”
“Eww, Belle.”
“Right?”
She hands me my T-shirt as I change out of the top. When I’m all changed, she raises her eyebrows and I nod. “You’re a style guru.”
“Yeah. Relationships too, and I have some advice.” Usually, her advice is good even if I don’t always take it. “Don’t let your past relationships ruin this one.”
I don’t even know if it’s a relationship. It’s more a holy hell I want him again situation, but I don’t know if he feels the same. How could I know?I had a great time,he’d texted, but he didn’t add, “Let’s do it again.” She’d been the one who said that part. Although, he did suggest the party.
“I can see you thinking about it, and doubting yourself because of what happened with Danette and Paul.” My childhood best friend slept with the guy I thought I was going to marry. It was a very sore subject for me. Clouds every relationship I’ve had ever since.
I should probably warn Walker that I come with baggage. And a lot of it.
But that’s not a second date talk. Of course, until Walker sex wasn’t a first date activity either. This relationship is breaking all the rules.
CHAPTERTEN
WALKER
I don’t get nervous. I’m not that kind of guy. I don’t freak out because I have a date with a woman. Of course, I also don’t invite women to my mother’s Fourth of July party. Never before.
And I’m a little nervous. Driving to her place, I probably check my hair five times, wish I would’ve shaved once, and once more wish I would’ve brought the bike instead of the truck. It’s an old pickup with a rusted fender and a hole in the muffler. But the engine is tuned and this thing would start in the middle of a tornado.
By the time I pull onto her street, the rearview is turned so I can no longer see behind me. My view now is of my hair. And I wish I’d taken a few more minutes, use a little more gel. But it’s all too late now. The jeans and t-shirt also have to do. Although I wonder if I should’ve gone with shorts. It’s going to be almost a hundred degrees today.
And when she opens the door to her place and stands in the rounded top frame, she is everything a man could want. Long legs. Sweet smile. Curves that make my mouth water.
I want to kiss her, pull her against me, blow off the barbecue, and spend the day in bed worshiping her.
Instead I hold out my hand for her, walk beside her to the truck and open the door. As soon as she climbs in, long legs shiny in the sun, smooth, soft, making my mouth water.
She slides over. This is one of those trucks with a bench seat and when I slide behind the wheel, her thigh brushes against mine. And it’s more than I’m strong enough to resist. I turn to her and put my arm around her shoulders, use the other hand to tilt her chin up and then kiss her like there isn’t anyone else in the world.
Her body shifts without Belle ever breaking the kiss. She has her hand on my chest and she makes one of those sexy slight moaning sounds in her throat. And again, I think about taking her inside. I can explain to Mom later on. And Maggie would understand.
The kiss deepens again, more. And there are acres of her skin showing. Her legs stick out from the gray and white striped shorts with the gold buttons equally spaced in lines down from her waistband to the top of each thigh. And the tie only shows off how thin she is. The shirt leaves her shoulders bare and from her throat to her cleavage. I want to lick and taste and touch all of it, but she’s looking up at me with those big green eyes and I can’t move. I don’t want to move.
“Should we go so we aren’t late?” Her voice is soft, on the sexy side of breathless. “I don’t want to… be late.”
Oh, I do. I want to beverylate, but I also don’t want her to think that since she gave me sex once–technically, it was a few times–that I think I need it every single time we’re together. Even if I want it every single time we’re together. Although, I’m a little disappointed that she’s so able to pull away, to have clear thoughts, to decide so quickly that she doesn’t want to say screw the party and take it inside the house instead.
I call on all the self-control I can muster and I smile at her. “Yeah.” I turn toward the wheel, twist the key and wrap my arm around her again. Well, technically, I lay it across the back of the seat, but my thumb is making little circles on her skin and every time she moves her hair I can smell the sweet floral scent of her shampoo. And Belle drops her hand to my lap, her fingertips stroking the inside of my lower thigh. I wouldn’t mind if she moves that hand upward, but I want the decision to be hers.
It’s a good thing my sister doesn’t live farther away than she does or I might not have survived this trip without imploding. I pull into the driveway behind my Mom’s SUV.
“This is your place?” She looks from the house to me. And I smile. My sister has done well for herself. She has a modest two story that’s been remodeled from its old fashioned farmhouse look to a more modern, more state of the art house where she lives with her husband and their dog Kokomo. Kokomo is a Great Dane with a wiry tail and pointed ears.
