“Was something I’ve tried for weeks not to do,” Lukas interrupted. “And I don’t regret trying not to. And I also don’t regret giving in and doing it anyway. In fact, I’m glad we waited.”
“Lukas, I?—”
He was leaning in again. His gaze flicked down to my mouth and back up to my eyes. “I want to kiss you again, Sawyer. I want to keep kissing you. I want a lot of things. You make me want a lot of things.”
He gave me time to say no. To pull back. To put a stop to the trajectory we were on and even though I knew all the reasons we shouldn’t, I leaned in anyway. Our hands clasped between us, our kiss was soft again, almost as gentle as the first one, then Lukas pulled his hands out of mine, and I reached for him.
My hands trembled as I slid them up his chest and looped them around to cradle the back of his head and pull him closer. To urge him to kiss me deeper. I opened my lips and slipped my tongue out, meeting his in the middle.
I had experience, but not a lot. Nothing like Lukas had, but he seemed to enjoy kissing me, regardless of how timid all my movements felt to me. A horrible thought entered my head, and I pulled back with a gasp.
“I hope you don’t think this was my angle all along or something. I didn’t plan to like you this much. And I’m not some crazy super fan or anything.” Now that my worries were out in the open, I wanted to hide under a rock. Lukas looked at me with amusement in his eyes.
“Sawyer, you’re about as devious as a vanilla cupcake.”
He stole one last kiss, a sweet brush of his lips against mine. It left me aching for more. My chest a hollow cavern that I wanted him to crawl inside of. My cock throbbed, trapped in my trousers, which were practically ruined with dog hair.
“I never once thought you’d only taken this job as a way to get into my pants.”
Lara plodded back over and stretched out beside Lukas. She forced her head onto his lap and let out a sigh. Lukas glanced down to where she lay and then, regrettably, he pulled his hands away from me and stroked them through her fur instead.
“Someone’s jealous,” he shot me an apologetic smile. “I know we crossed a line just now.” Lukas paused and my heart stuttered to a stop in my chest. “But I hope we can keep crossing it.”
Hope bloomed in my chest. It was like being a teenager again. All my feelings felt suddenly too big for my body to contain. I thought I might fly apart at the seams or float up into the atmosphere like an untethered balloon.
“I’m probably supposed to urge you to reconsider. To spin some sort of line about professionalism and remind you that you hired me to write your book, not to kiss you in your back yard, but to be honest, I’m a horrible liar and I’d honestly be a little crushed if you did reconsider.” I took a breath and smoothed my hands down my pant legs, trying in vain to brush some of the dog hair off. “That doesn’t mean that I know where we should go from here.”
“Sawyer, look at me.” The sound of Lukas’s voice drew my gaze up to his. “I haven’t been in a relationship in years, and I was a kid the last time I dated someone who wasn’t in the industry in one way or another. So it’s safe to say that I don’t know how to do this either. But maybe we can try? Maybe we can take it slow?”
There were definitely more Lukas-themed jerk-off sessions in my future.
“Take it slow,” I parroted as I tried to wrap my head around the developments of the last ten minutes.
“Maybe we could get dinner this week sometime. Just the two of us.” Lukas smiled as his focus dipped down to where Lara lay slumbering with her head in his lap. When he looked back upat me, a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “I haven’t been on a date in a long time. I might be rusty.”
“Yes.” The word flew out of me before I could second-guess myself. Or third, fourth, or fifth-guess myself. “I’d like that.”
“Good. It’s settled then.” Lukas leaned in and cupped my cheek. I leaned into the warmth of his touch, knowing that any moment now, he was going to kiss me again.
And that’s when the back door slammed shut.
“Don’t you answer your phone?”
I pulled away, my head turning in the direction of the angry-sounding voice. Ash was here, and he looked pissed. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he fired a glare my way.
“I was busy, Ash.” Lukas gave me an apologetic smile. “I’ll be right back.”
“I can go if this is a bad time.”
“Yes,” Ash said.
“No,” Lukas said a beat after him. “Stay. I’ll just be a minute.”
He pushed himself to his feet and followed Ash into the house. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but I could see Ash through the window, his features contorted as his hands sliced the air.
Watching them caused a sudden swell of guilt to wash over me, and I turned away, deciding instead to pull my phone out of my pocket and scroll through my messages. My social life had always left something to be desired, and mostly I didn’t mind, but I thought of what it might be like to date Lukas. He had to have a lot of friends and know a lot of people. My social circle was Yvette and sometimes Thurston and his husbands. Occasionally my parents tried to get me to go for dinner, but that was usually reserved for the holidays or any important social event they thought they might benefit from if I were with them.
The back door opening got my attention, and I tucked my phone away in time for Lukas to sit back down next to me. I didn’t miss the fact that he sat closer this time.
