This girl. Sexy,smart, gorgeous, unpredictable. Did I mention sexy? Piper Maxwell was the whole package. Even though we were only on our first official date, I was all in. I tried not to come on too strong about it, yet I needed her to see what was happening between us went way beyond casual hookups and fiery-hot sex.
I wasintoher.
Taking her to Ray’s place for our first date was a calculated risk. I didn’t want her to think I was trying too hard, but I also needed to impress her, let her see I was more than a football player. Let her see I had some refinement. A girl like her would expect that of someone she was seriously dating.
Before I left my place to pick her up, I’d promised myself to let her lead, let her decide how the date would end. Then she’d answered the door in those skintight jeans that hugged her perfect round ass the way I wanted to, and she added those knee-high leather boots that lifted said perfect ass, and all my good intentions went south. Never mind the burgundy sweater defining her curves in a way that left everything and nothing to the imagination. Her outfit tested me all through our meal.
She’d deepened the purple in her chestnut hair, intensifying her violet eyes. Somehow she’d fluffed it in a way that made it wave and swing, and I couldn’t keep my hands off it. Though I only fingered a single curl, it was all I could do not to plunge my hands into it, and experience the soft strands sliding through my fingers like silk.
It had been weeks since she’d spent the night in my bed—and left when I passed out after she gave me the best time of my life. I needed to make up for that. I needed show her I wasn’t a Neanderthal who took what he wanted and left her to fend for herself afterward. I needed to give her the best time ofherlife.
To my way of thinking, our first date was the exact right time for me to do all the things for her, but I also wanted whatever was growing between us to go somewhere. I’d never entertained the idea of serious with any girl I’d hung out with, but from the moment we’d locked eyes that first night in the Molly, I knew Piper was different. Special. One-of-a-kind. With a bone-deep certainty, I believed she was my person.
Now I needed to show her the truth of that.
As I let my fingers pad across the satin of her cheek, I held back the grin that threatened with the hitch in her breath—a hitch that said she wasn’t ready for the night to end either. When she asked if I’d like to come in, she was telling me I had a chance with her.
In the few minutes we’d spent talking in the cab of my truck, we’d fogged up the windows. As the snow came down harder, the temps dropped from cold to freezing. When she suggested we continue our date in her apartment, I wasted no time in hopping out and sliding around the front of my rig to open her door for her.
“Are you always this gentlemanly?” she asked as I helped her onto the snowy pavement.
“Dad drilled it into my brothers and me to treat women with manners and respect.”
A slow smile stretched her pretty mouth. “I like your dad.”
“You’ll like him more when you meet him.”
Her eyes popped open wide, and I wished I’d held that comment back. Slinging my arm over her shoulders, I hugged her close to my side and hustled us to her apartment.
Inside, it was toasty-warm. I shivered a bit when I unbuttoned my coat and draped it over a chair in the corner of the living room area. I unlaced my boots and toed them off, setting them neatly on the rug by the door while Piper unzipped those leather boots that had given me all kinds of hot thoughts when she first put them on.
“Are you still trying to impress me?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye.
At a loss, I shrugged. “I don’t know.” I glanced down at my plain Henley, jeans, and socks and back up at her.
She gestured to my jacket and boots. “With the exception of your desk where you’d obviously been working, your room was super-clean. Now you’re careful to be neat with things in my place too. Makes me wonder.”
“If it’s working, then yes.” I joined her on the couch, leaving a breath of space between us.
She dropped her grin. “Wyatt. I want to go slow.”
I slipped my fingers into her hair, letting it slide through them. “How far we go tonight or how we explore what’s happening between us?”
Closing her eyes for a minute, she gathered herself. When she opened them to stare deep into mine, it was my turn to lose my breath.
“I want you so much.” She traced her fingertips over the contours of my face. “But my ex did a number on my trust.”
“I’m not him.” I didn’t mean to growl, but damn. Lying and cheating always pissed me off. I couldn’t imagine doing either to Piper.
“I know. But I jumped right in with him, and it didn’t end well. I want to do it differently with you.”
She might think we were moving slow, but every word out of her sweet mouth told me she was as all-in with this relationship as I was.
Relationship? What thefuck?
Yet as the idea settled in, my chest warmed.
Slipping my hand around the back of her neck, I held her and feathered my lips over hers. “You’re in charge, Piper.” I held my breath and waited.
