Telling myself not to get hard there on the dance floor and actually succeeding were, apparently, two very different things. I didn’t want Finn to think this nebulous connection was all about sex for me. I would need to woo him, I suspected, to gain his trust. He wasn’t angry—but he clearly wasn’t happy either.
“Relax, baby. I got you.” He whispered the words in my ear as he ran his left hand down my right flank, then meandered it down to my ass where he squeezed.
Squeezed.
“Baby?” A little gruffer than I wanted. I cleared my throat. “Baby? Seriously?”
He chuckled, pressing his cheek against mine so he could again whisper in my ear. “That’s what you called me when you fucked me. I think a little reversal is fair play.”
Did I?I wracked my brain.Holy shit. Yes, I did.I couldn’t remember another time I’d done that with a guy. I wasn’t into that level ofintimacy—with anyone. So the fact I’d gone there so quick with this man—in the throes of passion, obviously, meant my subconscious had been at work all those months ago. Apparently, it knew more about me than I did.Well, it isyoursubconscious.
Sometimes I hated my inner voice.
“Did you like it when I called youbaby?” Because now I needed to know. If he saw it as a denigration then I’d never—
He rubbed his crotch against mine, bushing our cocks. His hands trailed down my back and cupped my ass. Again, he pressed against me. “Oh yeah, I liked it. But we can’t call each otherbaby.” He nipped my earlobe.
I nearly came right there—on the fucking dance floor. “I like…something…”You expect me to think at a moment like this?Yet this was completely unlike me. I always had my shit together. I was always the aggressor.
Alwaysimplied I did this often. I didnotdo this often. Or at least not often enough.
Yet I’d been celibate for the entire time since I’d fucked Finn. Not my longest dry spell, by any means—but getting up there. Again, I cleared my throat. “What would you like to call me?”
He laughed, his breath ghosting across my neck. “Well, I don’t reckon you’d take to sugar.”
“No.” Easy to reject that.
“How about sweetheart?”
I tried to pull back—to gaze into his eyes—but he held me firm.
“Don’t like that?”
For the third time, I cleared my throat. Like I was getting a fucking cold or something. “Sweetheartimplies a level of intimacy we don’t, I think, at this moment possess.”
“Would you want to?”
“Want to…?”
“Possess that level of intimacy.” He brushed our cocks together again.
This was downright obscene. I comforted myself that no one under nineteen was going to see us—the legal drinking age in Canada—and if they came here, they likely were expecting some level of raunchiness.
Tell yourself that—if it brings you comfort.
Right.
I brushed my cheek against his. “So if I invited myself back to your cabin, then we could continue our journey back to intimacy?”Jesus fucking Christ, you’re out of your mind. You still don’t know if he’s a good guy or not. He could be up to his neck—
Finn chuckled, just as the music changed.
Wham.Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.Personally, I preferredCareless Whisper. And not just because I wanted to continue holding him close.
“I never put out on the first date.” He yelled the words, and then was promptly dragged away by Stephanie and Cooper, who began bopping to the beat.
Lachlan and Taryn sat at the table, tapping out the rhythm.
Since I’d finished my drink—and therefore had no reason to go back to the table—I left. Well, I had a jacket to retrieve from coat check, because riding a motorcycle without a jacket was true lunacy. Coat in hand, I stepped out into the cool, dark night. Because of the light pollution, I couldn’t see the stars. They were out there, though, on this cool, clear night. I avoided driving the bike in the pouring rain or during snow. That hadn’t been a problem since arriving in Mission City, but it would soon be. Southwestern British Columbia’s snowfall varied from year to year. In Vancouver, I was able to use transit to get just about anywhere I wanted to get when weather grounded my bike.Plus, after I’d done my time as cub reporter, I’d moved to the investigative desk. I’d spent more time chasing down leads from my desk than running around the city.
