“I warned you,” I said, pointing at him, then bopped his nose.
“Aye, ye did.” He grinned and pressed a quick kiss to my cheek that had my knees doing a weird thing before they steadied again.
“Well, Varriano came over to threaten my dad. They stood out on the front porch and yelled at each other a bunch, then Dad punched him. Then Varriano punched Dad. They were both a bloody mess by the time they finished, and of course, I went out onto the porch to watch.”
Rowen sucked in a deep breath. “Yer da let that happen?”
I shrugged. “It wasn’t like he ever paid much attention to me. Anyway, I had my dog out there, and when Dad knocked Varriano on his ass the final time before he slunk away, I laughed at him. Then he said he would get me and my mutt. And, of course, I asked if he was going to do it himself or send his evil flying monkeys. Which I thought was hysterical because my mom had just made me watchThe Wizard of Ozwith her.”
Rowen bit his lip. “M’guessing the mafioso didn’t take that well.”
I shook my head and my heart twisted. “While I was at school the next day someone tossed some poisoned dog food in our backyard. We could never prove who did it, but—”
“It was that bastard,” Rowen said with a tiny growl.
I nodded. “Yeah. After that he and Dad didn’t speak again as far as I know, but I found Pickles.” I shrugged and cleared my throat. At the time I’d been devastated because my dog had died, and she’d died over stupid family bullshit. I’d shoved the incident to the back of my mind because we’d never owned another pet after that, not even a goldfish, and until Nick had brought it up, I hadn’t realized how I would react to the idea. “It sucked.”
Rowen rubbed his hands along my arms and leveled a serious look at me that gave me tingles. “If ye want the dog, which is a good idea, rabbit—”
I snorted. “Why rabbit?”
“ ’Cause ye need to eat yer greens, ye know.” He shrugged and grinned. “But if ye want the dog, I promise, we’ll make sure the wee thing is never alone. We’ll get in touch with one of those dogsitters and such. We can make certain nothing like that is ever possible. I swear on me life that I’ll do everything in my power to keep anything bad from happening to ye, and that includes keeping any pet ye own well and whole.”
“Uh, don’t you think that’s a big promise for a first date?” I joked, but he only shook his head.
“We both know this isn’t anything like a real first date. I care for ye already. This is simply me sort of making it official. Do ye feel the same way?”
I blinked at him, then stared around Times Square, smiling as warmth crept through my body, a shocking and amazing good feeling I’d only felt around Vail and Aspen in the past. I nodded. “Yeah,” I croaked out, then cleared my throat. “Yes, I feel the same way.”
“Good,” he murmured.
I couldn’t stand doing nothing. It wasn’t my style, even if he wanted to take this slow. I grazed my lips against his, and he sighed into the kiss, letting me take charge of this moment. I attacked his mouth. If this was what going on dates like normal people got me, I was all for it and wanted to do it again as soon as possible.
No wonder Vail liked this. I leaned back and grinned at Rowen.
“What?” he asked, brushing a few strands of my hair back behind my left ear.
“I was just thinking I can’t wait to tell Vail all about this.”
He chuckled, but instead of maybe being weirded out the way I’d half expected, he pressed a kiss to my forehead. Rowen was so strange, but I liked it.
6
DR. VAIL MIFFLIN, PHD HISTORY
Insomnia didn’t strikeme often these days, but when it did, I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep, and tonight my thoughts weren’t helping the situation. I’d come home this evening from tutoring to find Fallon and Rowen laughing as they made dinner together for us, and it had been a sweet scene. My heart had melted at the sight of them joking while Rowen easily directed Fallon to assist him. We’d all had a wonderful time, and then Fallon had gone for a run with me and gushed about his date with Rowen. I’d never heard him sound so shy and enthusiastic at the same time.
After eight miles he’d claimed exhaustion, so I’d gone to bed early with him, leaving Rowen to a book he’d been engrossed in. Fallon had fucked me exactly the way I loved, and then we’d fallen asleep wrapped up together.
Now I was awake and feeling like I would never close my eyes again tonight. I tickled my fingers over Fallon’s jaw and stared down into his face. His head rested on my arm and his soft, golden hair teased my skin. The brass lamp was still on, but I couldn’t reach the switch to turn it off—not that it mattered. I traced Fallon’s lips with my fingertip and smiled when he let out an adorable little happy sound in his sleep.
Rowen opened the bedroom door and came to a halt only a few steps inside. His blue pajama pants rode low on his hips and his red chest hair glimmered in the soft glow.
“Angel, what are ye doing? It’s late, and ye need to be awake in the morning, don’t ye?” He padded farther into the room.
I shrugged.
Rowen sat next to me on the bed.
