We move together. She twines her arms around my neck and tucks her face into my shoulder. I’m content holding her. I never imagined how she’d open up to me, and in Bootleg of all places. But in a way, it makes sense. There’s no pretense at Bootleg Tavern.
The way her body is pressed to mine makes it hard to concentrate on our slow two-step. Eventually, the song stops and it’s just the two of us by the jukebox.
Silas’s lilting steps sound from behind me. “Play a faster song next time,” he grumbles as he clears empty glasses from a table near us.
Elodie’s chuckle flutters the material of my shirt. “Sorry, Silas. We’ll choose ‘Goodbye Earl’ if we dance again.”
“We can still slow dance to it,” I whisper in her ear.
She tilts her face up to smile at me. “Or we can go back to my place.”
“Say no more, sugar.” She doesn’t have to tell me twice. I tow her out of the bar and into the parking lot. I’d pick her up, but that might seem too desperate.
When I open the passenger door, she flops into her spot and whips the seat belt across her body. As much as I want to get inside her, I can’t have her thinking I’m some sex-starved man and that’s all I want out of her.
Leaning in, I cup her face. “Tonight meant a lot.” I touch my lips to hers. If I go too much further, I’ll drive with the worst erection of my life. “Best date of my life.”
“A dive bar and a nineties song?” Still, she smiles. “Mine too.”
“Yeah?”
She drags my head down to kiss me again. “Yeah.”
I get behind the wheel, throw the pickup into drive, and peel out of the lot. I need a goddamn award for the restraint I have driving the short distance to her bakery. When I park at her back door, she’s out before me and is unlocking her door. I put my hands on her hips and nudge her hair out of the way with my nose to kiss the nape of her neck.
A needy moan leaves her just as she pushes the door open. I nearly trip over her in our rush to get inside. Then she swings the door shut and slams her back against it.
“I finally have you all to myself.” I line myself up with her, both of my hands on either side of her neck and my thumbs tilting her chin up. I’m rock hard, and I should be used to it by now around her, but I keep from pinning her between my erection and the door.
Our lips aren’t even touching, but my tongue is twined with hers. A faint buzzing sound taps at my mind. I forget it in a second when she yanks the bottom of my shirt free. Her fingertips are warm when they land on my stomach. I clench my gut and a groan resonates from me to her.
The buzzing starts again, and her roaming touch stalls. Slowly our kiss breaks and only our breaths mingle.
“Someone’s calling you.” I’m coherent enough to figure that out. I prop my hands on each side of her head.
“No one usually does.”
The bakery phone starts ringing and she jumps, alarm filling her eyes. “Crap. Something’s wrong.”
She ducks under my arm and covers the distance between us and the noisy phone in three steps. “Hello?”
She stiffens. “No. I’ll be right over.” She shakes her head. “No. Call them. We’ll figure it out later.”
When she hangs up, she doesn’t turn around. “Mom fell and hit her head. And of course it’s after the clinics are all closed, so Dad has to take her to the ER. I told him to call the ambulance.”
I tap the fob in my pocket. “Let’s go.”
“You don’t have to?—”
“It’s late and you’ve had a couple of beers. I gotchu.”
She nods and her eyes glitter. “I didn’t even think of that. Thank you.”
“Anytime.” I’ll always mean it.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Elodie
