He shrugged, staring determinedly at his plate. “I was just hoping I’d need fresh breath for something after dinner was over.” He glanced up at me, pink tinging his cheeks.
I paused, a half-eaten piece of garlic bread in my fingers. I thought back to the things Sloane had said earlier about me holding on to guilt. About how I had to give myself permission to let this man in. “You definitely will. But I have lots of toothpaste.”
Chapter Fifteen
Elias
Nerves jangled in my stomach as we finished our meal.
I had been unsure how she actually saw me.
I had worried about Jace’s opinion and about her still disentangling her life from Teddy’s.
But Jace wasn’t going to castrate me for touching his sister, Teddy was too annoying to worm his way back into her life, and Layne had been looking at me over her dinner like she’d rather eat me than the garlic bread.
This was actually happening, and I was equally excited and nervous. It felt different from other dates. Bigger or more important somehow. Like she might be the last woman I ever kissed.
The last one I ever wanted to.
We finished eating and stood at the counter, again side by side, washing dishes and putting them away. It felt different now than it had when we were cooking. Then I had been anticipatingdinner; now, I was anticipating her.
“So, I’m going to go brush my teeth,” she said, giving me a significant look before heading to the bathroom.
Garlic breath was a weird thing to flirt about, but I wasn’t exactly a romance expert.
Cooking dinner was about as complicated as I knew how to get. But I wasn’t trying to impress the old Layne, and this new one didn’t seem to want complicated.
Once she was done, I slipped into the bathroom myself and did some quick pre-sex prep.
When I came out, she was sitting on the edge of the bed. I took a deep breath, taking her in. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, nothing fancy, just her.
Or the version of her that lived in a cabin in the woods. I didn’t know the finance executive version of her that almost married Teddy. I suspected that person was gone, anyway. I needed to focus on the person right in front of me.
She patted the bed next to her, and I moved across the room.
“No one here to pretend for,” I said, sitting beside her close enough that our thighs touched.
She nodded. “I don’t want to fake anything with you. Not anymore. Not after you fed me pasta.”
I smirked. “If I had known all it took was carbs, I would have brought you a loaf of bread the first time we met.”
She sucked in a breath. “Did you want me back then?” She shuffled closer.
I nodded. “But not as much as now. Now that we’ve spent some time together, including with you writhing on top of me, you’re all I can think about.”
She reached her hand out to cup my jaw. “Me too.”
She leaned in, closing the last of the distance between us, and her mouth was on mine. She tasted like toothpaste, smelled like heaven, and I eased her onto her back before climbing onto the bed over her.
I propped myself up on my elbows so I didn’t squish her as I explored her mouth with mine.
There was nothing frantic in the way we moved. It was just us. It felt like a long time coming, but also like we had all the time in the world. I didn’t want to rush something I knew I would remember forever.
Layne didn’t seem to be feeling as sentimental as I was.
As soon as I lay over her, she slid her hand between us and palmed my length through my jeans. I let out a grunt, as if I’d been punched; her touch felt better than anything I’d ever felt. Her lips stilled under mine as she concentrated on getting my button open and lowering my zipper.
Once she had them down, she brought her legs up and hooked her toes into the waistband of my jeans and shoved them down my legs. I laughed against her lips.
