That got a small smile out of him. Light and shadow caught in the fine lines at the corners of his eyes. He was still looking down, his fingers slipping into the top of one of my socks and brushing it down my ankle, over my heel. His fingers drifted along the sensitive skin on the inside of my arc. It was almost soft enough to tickle.
“Bertie could take over the state in a week,” he said.
I resisted the urge to run my fingers through his thick, dark hair. To grab hold and gently tip his face up to mine.
“She’s the heart of Ordinary,” I said. “Holds us together.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” He tucked one wadded sock into my boot, then turned his attention to the other foot. “I can’t imagine Ordinary being anything without Delaney Reed. I know I wouldn’t be here.”
I licked my bottom lip. Warmth from his touch was sending little soft electric flares up my skin, starting from my ankles and blooming up my legs.
Sleep was suddenly looking like a less appealing way to get rid of the day’s stress.
“Where would you be instead?”
He finally tipped his head up, his eyes deep with shadow and glowing from candlelight. “Anywhere you were.”
Now it wasn’t just my breath that was caught. It was my heartbeat, and my entire body stilled at his words. His gaze.
How did you tell someone you had been in love with for almost all your life that you cared for them? How did you tell them you had fantasies about what life might be like with them?
How did you tell them you didn’t want to screw this up, and that maybe being a day low on sleep and a lifetime high on rhubarb might be altering your decision-making skills?
And oh, yeah, how did you tell them an immortal vampire hippy thought they might be a dangerous threat?
“I’m going to be in bed,” I heard myself say.
He blinked slowly, and the small smile on his lips told me he approved.
“Good,” he said.
“Good,” I replied. I stood.
He stood. We were so close, I could almost feel his heartbeat fluttering under his T-shirt and flannel.
This is where I say no. This is where I listen to the vampire and turn you away.
He leaned down, lips slightly parted, hand drifting to cup the side of my face with ridiculous tenderness, gaze searching mine.
This is where I listen to my heart.
I reached up and pulled his lips down to mine.
Heat kindled in that kiss, his mouth shifting gently to surround first my top, then my bottom lip, soft, slow, as if he had waited too long to taste me and wanted to make this last. He tasted of coffee and, slightly, oranges, and some other deep note that was wholly him. His tongue pressed gently at the seam of my mouth and I opened gratefully to him, and lost myself to the reality of my fantasy, of kissing him as I’d longed to for almost my entire life.
Eventually, he pulled back, rubbing one thumb over my swollen bottom lip.
“Delaney,” he breathed. He lowered his mouth and kissed me again, longer, and so slowly it ached. I made a needful sound and rubbed my hands up his wide back. I tugged on his soft, short hair, then rubbed my hands back down to his lean hips.
I wanted this to last forever, this slow exploration, but I trembled with the need for more.
He was wearing too many layers. My fingers tugged at his T-shirt, slipped up beneath the soft cotton, and finally stroked the heat of his smooth skin along the edge of his low-slung jeans.
Ryder Bailey, I’ve been waiting for this. Waiting for you. I don’t care what the vampire says.
I pulled away from the kiss so I could unbutton my shirt. Ryder’s hands fell over mine, stilling my clumsy fingers over the line of buttons. He leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss on the tender skin beneath my ear.
“I have too many clothes on,” I whispered.
