He pulled back and kissed me lightly on my lips. “Come with me?”
I nodded and let him lead me to his car. He opened the door for me and once I was in my seat, he kissed me again and got in on the driver’s side.
Neither one of us spoke, but he took my hand as soon as he was buckled in and didn’t let go until we reached the only motel in Butler. It was clean but dated, the owners as old as the buildings and stuck in the era of flowery curtains and shaggy carpets. They also liked to gossip—it was Butler’s national sport after all—and word would quickly spread about a McAllister coming back here with the golden Cormack son.
Rhett knew this. He grew up here. He knew how it worked. And by taking me with him, he made a statement. A big one. One that I liked a lot.
He got the best room they offered. It was big, had a Jacuzzi that I was eyeing longingly and the carpet was new, not a fluffy bacteria heaven.
Rhett closed the door and walked to the bed, turning on the bedside lamp, casting the room in a low glow. “Let’s make sure you really get what I was saying earlier.” He prowled toward me, making all my insides gooey.
“I only want you.” He pulled my flimsy shirt off. “There is no one else for me.” He pushed my pants down, leaving me in only my underwear since I had once again forgone a bra. “I adore you.” He picked me up. “I’m not letting you get away this time.” He gently laid me out in the bed and looked at me, drank in every detail.
“Rhett,” I whispered. He was everything. I was totally and irreversibly in love. There was no coming back from this. If I thought I had it bad before, I didn’t know what I was talking about. My whole body was melting into the sheets with every word he spoke, every caress of his gentle hands.
“Tell me, Emmi.”
“I love you,” I blurted out, instantly mortified at myself.
His hand stopped just below my breast, his head snapping up to look at me. I tried to sit up but he stopped me.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. It just came out. Can we get back to the part where I’m about to get laid?” Smooth recovery expert I was not.
“Say it again.”
I shook my head. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Emmi.”
“Don’t, Emmi me. Can’t we just pretend it never happened?”
“Definitely not. If you had let me respond instead of panicking you would already know that I love you too.”
“We could just –” Did he just say he loved me? Emmi McAllister? Trailer trash, loser at life and all round wreck? “Really? Are you sure?”
He smiled and kissed my nose. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. I love you. There, I said it again so you can’t pretend it didn’t happen.”
I did the only thing a girl in my situation could and should do. I threw my arms around his shoulders and hugged him to me. He landed on top of me with an oomph and didn’t have time to recover before my lips met his.
He tasted like peppermint and beer, clearly having refused the wine I had tried to get for him.
“Don’t just freeze me out. If you are worried about something, talk to me.” His arms were on each side of my head to hold his weight, his body covering mine.
“I don’t know how much clearer I can make this, but you are everything to me, Emmi. I’ve waited a long time for you, and now that I finally have you in my arms, there is nothing that I wouldn’t do to keep you there.”
I pushed up and kissed him to stop him from saying anything else. There was only so much a girl could take before she lost it.
“If you don’t stop talking I might just burst into tears. And not the good kind. This will be a full on sob fest.”
“I guess we better get to the sexing you up part then.”
I suppressed the laughter, barely, and said, “Sexing me up? Is that your way of saying you’ll fuck my brains out? Because I won’t accept anything less. You’ve already set the bar pretty high.”
He grinned and came closer, his nose brushing my cheek. “Challenge accepted.”
Turns out he took a challenge very seriously. The hour of sleep I got was proof of that.
