Rubbing a hand over my chest, I smiled as Rowen rushed out of his room. The green sweater that clung to his muscles looked soft and made me want to trail my lips all over his pecs. He was in jeans, but they fit in all the right ways. He stopped and stared at me, and I glanced down at myself.
“Too much? I wasn’t sure what you wanted to do, so....”
“Just right.” He cleared his throat.
“You look...really hot,” I said roughly, then bit the tip of my tongue. A thousand one-liners jumped through my mind, but none of them were good enough. Rowen smiled, even without a bad joke, and some of the tension eased out of my body.
“Same, rabbit.” He tucked his hands into his pockets as he came to a stop in front of me, and I glanced up into his eyes. I wasn’t a big guy, overall, so it wasn’t unusual for me to have to tilt my head back to meet someone’s gaze, but tonight our differences seemed more significant for some reason. Rowen’s attention trailed down my front, and I could imagine him crowding me against a wall or shoving me onto a bed. I wanted him to take a little bit of control.
Smiling, I shook my head and stared down at the white dress shoes I’d dug out of the back of my closet to go with the pants.
“If ye haven’t figured it out yet, I want to do a date night with ye,” Rowen said, and I glanced up in time to catch him studying me with a small grin. “Nothing fancy. Dinner and a movie. Ye can pick what we see. I’d like to know what ye enjoy.”
Chewing on the corner of my lip, I finally forced my shoulders back and gave him my flirtiest smile. “If we’re doing this, why didn’t we bring Vail?”
Rowen snagged my hand and brought it up to kiss the inside of my wrist, and I nearly swallowed my tongue.What a smooth fucking move.I’d never pulled off anything like that so easily and wasn’t sure I ever would. “This is for us. I take Vail out alone and give him time and attention. If he asks me for something, I provide it. No matter if that’s a book or letting him go off to have a moment with Cillian, when I’d rather he was at my side.” He teased his lips along my knuckles and goose bumps raced over my skin. “I’ll do the same for ye. But I want to get to know ye alone. Know the Fallon who is maybe shy of the rest of the guys.” His pink lips curled into a smirk, and I felt like a spotlight beamed directly onto my face. Sweat trickled down my spine.
“Uh.” I laughed and a twinge of fear made my breath catch. “What if you don’t like the me you meet?”
Rowen shook his head. “Impossible.”
Nodding, I stared at the ceiling. “I’m not totally myself right now. I’m missing Aspen and Cillian.”
Rowen rubbed my hand between both of his like he was trying to warm me up. “Ye saying ye won’t want me when they’re back?” I couldn’t miss the hurt in his tone.
“No! Hell no!” I stepped in and gave him a quick hug. “It’s just that this is harder with them gone. I don’t know. Does that make sense? If something goes weird between us, I don’t have Aspen to run to,” I mumbled, shocked that I really felt that way. “Or Cillian to make me forget.”
Rowen’s brow furrowed. “I think it’s easier this way.”
“Really? Why?”
He ran a hand up and down my back, and I wanted to lean against him. “First off, if we do have a problem I can’t fix right away, ye have two fewer people to go to, as ye said. That means ye’ll either talk to Vail, who will tell ye to talk to me, or—” He tugged me more firmly into his arms. “—ye’ll come to me, which is what I would always prefer if we’re having some sort of misunderstanding.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead that made my stomach explode with heat and boil like hot honey, which inspired my dick to take up extra room in my boxers. “Plus, I’m not battling for time. I do that with Vail, wait and rearrange plans quite often. I enjoy this. Truth be told, it will be nice to be able to have ye because Vail also has Aspen and Cillian. I wouldn’t say I was lonely, but I was alone more than I would’ve liked.” He flashed a small smile.
“You’re really okay doing the same thing for me that you would for Vail?” I murmured, almost afraid to hear the answer.
He shrugged. “’Course I am.”
Rowen took my hand and walked down the stairs with me at his side.
Nerves buzzed in my stomach the way they did before a fight. “This is our second date. You must really like me.” Before Rowen could say anything, I plowed on. “But why wouldn’t you? What’s not to love about all this?” I waved a hand at myself as we stepped down onto the floor in the front hallway. He grabbed my coat from the rack and held it out for me, and heat attacked my face as I let him help me slip it on.
“Aye. Agreed,” Rowen said, stepping close to plant a kiss on my cheek.
My body flushed red hot and I had no idea what to say. “Uh.” I tugged my car keys out of my pocket. “Want to tool around in the Spyder? It’s a lot nicer than your Lexus, since I was so muddy earlier.”
He winced and pulled on his coat. “True. It’s not great for these roads, though. I’m not sure if it’s gonna snow or not. I wish spring would hurry up and take over.”
Shrugging, I tossed the keys in the air and caught them. “We’re not going that far away, right? Come on.” I snagged his hand and dragged him out to the garage. He sighed as I unlocked my silver Spyder and held open the door for him, but he had me snickering when he tipped an imaginary hat at me and plopped down in the seat. I shut his door and raced around to the driver’s side, excited to show off.
I had trouble waiting for the garage door to go up, and he groaned when I backed out, then squealed forward along the street with a laugh. I didn’t drive like a dick with Vail in the car because I didn’t want to upset him, and I quickly realized as Rowen muttered about speed limits that I wouldn’t be able to do it with him, either, but that was fine.
“Where do you want to eat?” I asked, after we were away from the residential area and had been cruising around for a few minutes.
“Ye’re driving,” Rowen said, and he smiled when I glanced at him, so I figured he really didn’t care.
“Okay.” I shrugged and pulled into a Wendy’s.
I managed to put the car in Park and pop open my door before I cracked a laugh at Rowen’s horrified expression and shut it again. Seconds later, I backed out of the spot.
