Laughing, I come to a stop in the clearing for the bluff and park. I let Della’s hand go in order to get out. I round the front of the truck as she’s opening her door. Her eyes come to mine as I help her get out. With the height of the truck being lifted, she would have to jump in and out of it. Fine with me if it means I get to have my hands on her.
I hold Della’s gaze as I set her on her feet, holding her close. With her so close and smelling the floral scent of her, I crave more. My cock wants to take things further. Only with Della, I need to take things slow, especially with what she revealed to me. The very fact she even let that come out has me wanting to protect her at all costs from anything that would dare be a threat to her.
“Come on.” I drop my hands from her hips, take her hand, and guide her to the back of the truck.
I let her go in order to put the tailgate down and haul myself up into the bed. I set out the blankets I’d gotten from my room at the clubhouse. The cooler holding the drinks and the bag with our food is at the front of the bed.
With the blanket set out, I step to the tailgate, bend down, and lift Della, making her gasp.
Once her feet clear the edge of the tailgate, I make sure she’s firmly on her feet before nodding for her to stretch out on the blanket set up.
“So, we’re having a picnic?” she asks, pointing out the obvious.
“That’s what we’re doing,” I tell her, grabbing the bag out of the cooler and joining her. “Could have taken you to town, gone to dinner, but this, well, it seemed a better option so we could have time without the whole town watching us.”
“Does that mean you intend to keep our relationship a secret?”
“Fuck no,” I bite out harsher than I mean to. “We’re not a secret, Della. It is my first time doing something like this. I didn’t want us to have to deal with people in town gawking and gossiping. This, tonight, it’s about you and me. Us. Learning about each other. Trust me when I say, we’ll be seen and not some dirty little secret.”
No way in hell I would do that to her. Della Meadows isn’t the type of woman you keep from the world.
Della nods and sucks in a breath. “I have one request of you with us dating.”
“What’s that?” I’ll do anything she asks of me so long as it’s something I can do.
“If at any time you don’t want me. Tell me. I don’t want a relationship that is volatile. I won’t look the other way if you want someone else.”
“With you, Della, there can be no other woman for me. I’ve thought about it since the hospital. I can’t get you out of my head, and that is a dangerous thing. Especially with the shit that was going on.”
“What was going on?” she whispers, holding my gaze with those deep, dark eyes of hers that haunted my dreams the past few nights.
“I told you about Marcy and the bullshit she tried.”
Della nods.
“I’m not going to go through all the details, but I’m gonna ask that if she comes near you, you tell me.”
“Why would she do that?” Della’s brows furrow, obvious confusion written all over her face.
“Because the bitch is crazy.” There’s no other way to put it.
I dig into the cooler, hand her a beer, only for her to shake her head.
“I don’t drink.”
“Baby, I watched you drink at Rodeo Roundup,” I point out, cocking a brow, grinning.
“Yeah, and I kept my hand over the top of it the whole time when I wasn’t drinking from the glass,” she whispers, pink tinting her cheeks.
Fuck.
I get what she’s not saying.
“You know, when you’re with me, you’re safe, right?” I need her to understand that she’ll always be safe with me and can trust that I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.
“I feel safe. However, this . . . between us . . . it’s just starting. I don’t want to piss you off by saying this, but I don’t know you enough to trust you yet.”
Damn those words, as right as she is to say them, feel like a sucker punch to the gut.
