The warmth that seeps into me from where his hand is pressed against the small of my back grounds me. “Come on, Sugar,” he wiggles his eyebrows as he opens the door for me, “let’s make our last first date count.”
Ican’t help but giggle. His words are ridiculous, but a small overly needy part of me is desperate for this to be real.
The last thing I expected was Joss finding his way into my life, but I like it. I like it a whole fucking lot. As I find myself smiling and laughing as the conversation flows between us easily and without awkwardness, I realize just how long it’s been since I’ve felt this kind of warmth. Or laughed so much. Or couldn’t stop smiling.
When he takes me home, he walks me to my door. As much as I want to ask him inside, I’m scared. I don’t want him to be disappointed, and I don’t want to be hurt.
But then he closes the distance between us and presses his lips to mine. He doesn’t ask this time, he takes and I melt into him as he pries my lips open with his and plunges his tongue into my mouth. As he kisses me, I can’t help but wonder just how long this is all going to last.
I’m hoping for forever, but I’ll take what I can get.
CHAPTER 7
JOSS
I’m not sure if I’m making the right call showing up at Syndal’s house when I know she’s working on her treats tonight, but I can’t help myself. When I knock on the door, part of me wants to run away, but I stand my ground. I want to see her. No, it’s more than that. Ineedto see her.
We’ve been on two dates now and as much as I told her the second one was our real, official date, I know that I’m full of shit. I loved our first date. It wasn’t fancy or anything, but it was really fucking special.
She was relaxed. She opened up to me. Fuck, the way she smiled.
If I didn’t already know she was meant to be mine, that night would have done it. Her smile gave me a sense of peace I haven’t experienced in years. The darkest corners of my mind, the ones filled with memories I would rather forget, they weren’t quite as dark. Light reached them again.
Finally.
All because of her.
And now it’s been a few days, and I can’t fucking function without seeing her tonight. I wasn’t planning on it. Really, but then I couldn’t stop thinking about kissing her and the next thing I know I’m standing at her door.
It swings open and there she is with an apron on, and her red hair pulled up into a messy bun. She’s wearing a worn t-shirt and pajama pants. For a moment I’m frozen in place.
I don’t know what I was expecting, honestly. Or this is what I was expecting? I’m not even sure, it feels like fireworks are going off in my head and part of me wonders if I should go to the hospital and get checked out. This has never happened to me before.
A meow comes from inside and Syndal turns and hisses under her breath, “No, Cap. You are not a person, and you aren’t going to be effective in a real fight against a human. I’m the one in charge here. I answer the door. Why do we have to keep going over this?” With a roll of her eyes, she turns toward me, and her cheeks turn a delicious shade of pink as she realizes I heard every word. “I’m not some crazy lady who talks to her cats.”
All I can do is arch an eyebrow because she clearly is someone who talks to her cat. Does it make her crazy? Well, I don’t really think I’m one to judge, and I don’t really give a fuck either way. It changes nothing.
Not a fucking thing.
She blanches slightly and gasps, “You’re not allergic, are you?”
I fucking melt.
My hand comes up and cups her soft cheek because I can’t stop myself from touching her. “No, Sugar,” I promise, “I’m not allergic.”
Her shoulders slump and she blows out a breath. “Oh good,” she sighs. Then she straightens up slightly and looks at me with narrowed eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“I know you’re working on getting ready for your next event and I’m not trying to interrupt you. I just,” I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, “I needed to see you. I’ve been thinking about kissing you for hours and I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Desire flashes in the depths of her green eyes and I’m fucking lost. The only thing I can think about is having her. I hold myself back from grabbing her and carrying her to her bed, but it’s not fucking easy.
Her voice drops to a husky whisper, “Then you should know two things.”
“What?” The word comes out sounding like a hunt for water in the desert and I’ve been deprived for days. Fucking days.
“I was just cleaning up for the night,” she admits, “because I need things to set before I take them out of the molds.”
My control starts to fray. I can feel it. Fiber by fiber. I’m practically twitching from the effort of holding back.
