“How did you guys even know it was my birthday? I didn’t say anything.”
“We know everything about you, remember?” Cameron smirks.
She purses her lips, attempting to hide her grin. “Right.”
“And we made your cards,” Elena shouts, jumping to snatch them off the table. She stands beside Taryn’s chair and hands them to her.
She opens them one by one, smiling at Tristan and Elena’s card and then laughing at the one Brennan and Cameron gave her. It makes my skin itch, wondering what the twins wrote.
She opens mine next.
I have a surprise for you.
Meet me on the porch after dinner.
- C
After she reads it, her eyes instantly collide with mine. She nods, suppressing a smile.
My pulse batters, and I take a sip of water, my focus not leaving her.
I’ll see you on the porch after dinner, Little Ghost.
“Where are we going?”Taryn wraps her arms tightly around her body.
The chilly night air is a little colder than I had anticipated, but luckily, she’s in a sweatshirt, and I have a few blankets and pillows set up in the truck bed.
When I remain silent, she glares at me. “You guys already surprised me with dinner,” she whines, walking beside me as we reach the edge of the mowed lawn where the orchard meets the yard.
“What’s your point?”
She rolls her eyes and huffs out a breath, glancing around at the dark trees engulfing us. Her eyelids turn into little slits as her focus finds me again. “Should I be running?”
“Do you want to run?” I challenge.
“You’re making me feel like I should, since you’re being all shady.”
A thrill shoots through my veins. Snatching her arm, I tug her into me, her breath quickly exiting her lungs.
Lowering my head to hers, I brush my warm lips against the skin below her ear. “If you want to run, then run,” I gesture ahead of us toward the direction of the quaint party for just the two of us that I set up. After a minute of walking—or running—she’ll start to see the string lights flickering through the trees.
“I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you a minute head start, but if I catch you, I want your clit on my tongue while my cock is buried in your throat.”
She visibly shudders, my dick twitching at how responsive she is to my words. “God, your mouth sometimes.”
Without another word, she wiggles out of my grasp and starts running, each beat of her feet against the ground encouraging the drumming in my chest.
I start walking in the same direction, because she is bound to lose anyway.
She just doesn’t know it yet.
A minute later, I see her ahead, standing motionless under the starry sky with the moonlight filtering above. The glow of the string lights in front of her highlights her flawless silhouette. I usually don’t drive my truck through the empty rows between the trees, but I made an exception tonight.
Ambling up behind her, I keep my hands tucked in my pockets. Lowering my lips to the curve of her neck, I press a soft kiss there, fighting the urge to groan at her taste. “Happy birthday, Little Ghost.”
The movement in her throat moves against my mouth. She spins rapidly, her arms wrapping around my head as she buries her face in my neck. Something wet drips down my chest, the wake of her tears searing through my flesh and cutting open my heart.
Fuck. She hates it.
