Rory let out a shaky breath and pushed back from me. His eyes were glossy and reddened, and my heart hurt that he’d believed the worst. “She’s not?”
A grin stretched my lips unbidden. “How about we take this inside and shut the door?”
“You mean you don’t want the neighbors to peep in on this mess?” His lips tilted into a slight smirk, some of his usual tease returning, and I loved to see it.
“Nah, this mess is mine,” I said, tugging on his hand to lead him inside. I snagged the door and dragged it shut behind me.
“Yours, huh?” he asked, his blue eyes sparkling. “Do I get a say in that?”
“Obviously,” I responded. “But you’ve got to know by now that I’m crazy about you. My only hesitation was how Harper would react,but even if she’d been upset, I would’ve found a way to make this work.”
Rory opened his mouth and then shut it. I turned to face him, right in the middle of the foyer, and tilted his chin up with my finger.
“This is the sort of connection I’ve dreamed of, Rory. The sort I figured I’d never have. I thought my life was mostly over, but when I’m around you, I feel like it’s just begun.”
He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the motion. “Dammit, stop making me feel things.” His eyes glossed up again. “I’ve been afraid to try again. The other guys I’ve hooked up with were happy to let me keep them at a distance, but…that distance never existed with you. From the moment you strolled into the shop, you seemed to understand me in a way no one ever has before.”
“Does that mean you’ll be my boyfriend?” I asked, my heart lodged in my throat. I would never have believed I’d be starting my life over after having raised a kid, but Rory didn’t make me feel like I was in my late thirties. He made me feel like all the potential in the world existed before me, waiting to be snatched up.
“It means I’ll be yours,” he said.
That one word, “yours,” was all I needed.
I closed the distance and claimed his lips. We’d crashed together, but already it felt like days had passed rather than only an hour. I needed to taste him, to draw his body against mine. Pure, exultant joy rose inside me, growing by the second as his response spread through my awareness, like a drop of ink in a bowl of water, diffusing through my whole system.
The urge to claim him, to make him mine all over again rose inside me.
We’d just crashed together earlier in the night, but it wasn’t enough. It’d never be enough.
I pulled away, a little breathless. His eyes sparkled, the same euphoria reflected back at me.
“Want to show me your bedroom?” I asked.
“Only if you want to punish me for running off,” Rory teased.
My blood roared hot, and I scooped him up off his feet. He let out a yelp as I started up the steps.
“Hell yes.”
Chapter twenty-one
Rory
I’d never been on a date with quite so many twists and turns before.
Granted, I’d never actually been on a date—at least not one with the intent to spend time together rather than hooking up and going our separate ways after.
Except Wyatt was here to stay.
The reality sent a shiver down my spine.
Boyfriend.
That was something I’d given up on back in high school, the humiliation and sadness still sending a prickle up my spine. And maybe a little bit of that was my fault, for keeping it secret, for not trying again. Yet maybe I’d just been waiting for Wyatt all along.
He clutched me tightly, picking me up like I was effortless yet again, and damn, his strength was such a turn-on. It didn’t matter that we’d fucked earlier in the night, I wanted him again.
“I’m the first door on the left,” I stated.
