Eli:Yeah. You coming?
Me:Depends. You still want the hat?
Eli:Definitely want the hat.
I grin at my phone, heat already pooling low in my stomach.
Me:Give me twenty minutes.
His cabin is dark when I pull up except for the light over the door. I grab my hat from the passenger seat—I'd left it in the truck on purpose—and head inside without knocking.
He's waiting.
Leaning against the kitchen counter in jeans and nothing else, bare feet, hair still damp from the shower. He straightens when he sees me, eyes tracking down my body and back up, lingering on the hat.
"You wore it," he says.
"You asked me to."
"I did." He pushes off the counter and crosses to me. Slow. Deliberate. "Wasn't sure you would."
"When have I ever not done what you asked?"
His mouth curves. "Want me to make a list?"
I laugh and he catches me around the waist, pulling me flush against him. His skin is warm, still smelling like soap, and I slidemy hands up his chest just to feel the solid muscle under my palms.
"Hi," I murmur.
"Hi."
He kisses me. Not gentle. Not hesitant. Just claiming, like he's been waiting all day for this and now that I'm here, he's not wasting time.
I kiss him back, fingers curling into his shoulders, and he walks me backward toward the bedroom without breaking contact. My legs hit the edge of the bed and I sink down, pulling him with me.
He follows, bracing himself above me, and reaches up to tip my hat back so he can see my face.
"Leave it on," he says.
"That was the deal."
"Good." His mouth finds my neck, teeth grazing the sensitive spot below my ear, and I arch into him. "Because I've been thinking about this all day."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." His hands slide under my shirt, palms warm against my ribs. "You in this hat. In my bed. Exactly like this."
Heat floods through me. I reach for his belt, and he helps me, clothes disappearing in a tangle of limbs and breathless laughter.
The hat stays on.
***
After, we're both breathing hard, tangled together, the hat somehow still miraculously on my head though listing dramatically to one side.
Eli reaches up and straightens it, grinning. "Told you it should stay on."
I laugh and shove at his chest weakly. "You're ridiculous."
