“Mom and I still go to shows,” he said, as if that should be obvious.
And it should’ve.One of the first times I’d ever talked to him, I found him lingering outside the music department after a school musical, waiting for his friends.When I sarcastically asked him if he was lost, he told me I had good stage presence.
I smiled at the memory and found a glass big enough to keep the rose upright.As I filled it with water, I said, “Right.How could I forget?Thanks for this.Seriously.”
He shrugged.“It’s cheesy, I know.But I have no pride.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“If you’re trying to freak me out with that, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”He grinned lopsidedly.
“Yeah?”I set the glass next to the sink and started toward him, where he stood beside the door still.“So there’s nothing for me to break down, is that what you’re saying?”
“Guess it depends on if you want to break something down.I could pull something together,” he said easily.
“Uh-huh.”I stopped just a foot in front of him, eyes narrowed, arms crossed over my chest.Was he really that accommodating, or was it just to make me think he was?Get my guard down, that kind of thing?Either way, “You look hot.”
“And you’re on fire.”He looked me over, head to toe.
I flushed with pleasure.And maybe a little embarrassment, mostly at how much I liked it.“Not too informal?”
“No one dresses up for the matinee.”Then a slight hesitation as his gaze snagged on my lips.He licked his.“Um, can I…?”
I moved in and put an arm around his neck, pressing myself against his warm, hard front.The clean scent of him, just shampoo and soap, wrapped me up and made me wanna bury my face in his chest.
I’d remembered that too, last night; how I used to pretend I was in a hurry to get home when all I wanted was to curl up on top of him like a cat in winter.
But I had self-control, goddammit.So I just tilted my face upward and said, “Go ahead.”
He wrapped an arm around my waist and kissed me—but not so fast I didn’t catch the smile on his lips just before they found mine.We slid into it easily, opening up for each other, a taste that sent electric shocks through my body and straight into my balls.I swallowed a happy, hungry sound; his arm tightened around me.
I was reconsidering my options just like that.Maybe wecouldjust stay here for a quickie instead of going for drinks?Getting this tension out of the way first thing could be good—
He closed off the kiss and pressed his forehead into mine, still smiling.“Heh.I thought about that a lot.Last night.”
“Yeah?”So had I, but like fuck I was gonna admit it out loud.
“Mmm,” he hummed, a definite affirmative response.Then he cleared his throat and let me go.“Right.We should go.Don’t wanna miss the curtain.”
I made sure not to show my full-body disappointment.Which was good, because within seconds, it shifted into appreciation.His face was flushed, his pants tight across the front, and he gave me another up-and-down look that said stepping away from that kiss was physically painful.
Not that I ever thought Iwasn’thot.Not to most people, and definitely not to him.But that wasn’t what got to me in his reaction.
It was that he probably knew he could have me.Right here, right now, on my kitchen counter, on my little sofa, on my bed stashed into the corner behind the bookshelf.If he went for it, I’d go for it.
But he’d promised me a date.
He drove us downtown, paid for crazy Theater Square parking, walked the half block to The Warren with his shoulder bumping mine and his attention so fixated on me, he almost tripped on the sidewalk.We snacked on French fries with our cocktails and talked about the wedding, his mother, my father, and of course, my sisters.
He’d been drinking 7-and-7 at the wedding.The Stanley County equivalent.But he looked more at home with a barrel-aged Manhattan and city traffic in the window behind him.
I must’ve been staring because he turned to look over his shoulder, like he thought I’d spotted something.“What?”
I smiled.“Nothing.I was just thinking you look at home here.”
“Well, it is home,” he said easily.But then he narrowed his eyes.“Yours too.”
“I guess I still imagine you as the big fish in the little pond.Didn’t know you hated it until last night,” I said with a little shrug.In our hometown, Taran had been the best looking, the most popular, the most famous.Here, he was just… a guy.A hot guy, but aguy.Like me.
