She shakes her head. “I get it. You’re bored, and there aren’t a lot of women around.”
I capture her wrist in my hand. “It’s not that at all. I want to take you on a date because every time I’m around you, I can’t stop staring at your lips and wondering how you taste.”
“Oh.” Her mouth pops open.
“Let me take you out somewhere nice and afterward let me kiss you and find out what you taste like everywhere.”
Her eyes widen, and red creeps into her cheeks. “You’re very forward, aren’t you?”
I shrug. “I’ve learned to be in my line of work. You never know what’s coming tomorrow, so you better grab onto today.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” she murmurs. Then, she peers at me thoughtfully. “If I agree to go out with you…”
“You won’t regret it.” My gaze flicks to her lips, and I’m already imagining all the things I’m going to do to Kayla to give her a night to remember.
She shakes her head. “I was going to say if I agree to go out with you, I get to choose what we do for the date.”
She probably wants to make sure I take her to a vegan restaurant and not a rib joint. But she’s considering it, so I’ll agree to anything to get some time with Kayla.
“Fine with me.”
“And just because I agree to go out with you, doesn’t mean I’m going to…” She trails off, but this time I don’t finish the sentence for her. I want to hear her say it.
I raise my eyebrows, waiting.
Her gaze flicks downward over my body, and the blush deepens. “…let you taste me.”
Her wide eyes tell me otherwise. I don’t usually come on this strong, but I absolutely know in the depths of my bones that Kayla wants me as much as I want her. She either hasn’t figured it out yet, or she’s too polite to say it.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” I lean toward her and whisper in her ear, so my breath grazes the side of her neck. “I won’t taste you until you beg me to do it.”
She sucks in a breath, and through her thin yoga top her nipples harden to peaks. Her breathing is shallow, and I long to take her in my arms and kiss her. But I won’t touch her now. I’m a man of my word, and I won’t do anything unless she asks me to.
“So where am I taking you?”
She blinks quickly, as if remembering where she is. Her gaze darts to my lips, and if she wants me to kiss her, she’ll have to ask me for that as well.
“You promise that whatever I choose to do for the date, you’ll do it?”
I’d promise anything right now to get those lips on mine and her body underneath me. “I promise, sweetheart.”
My gaze resets on her lips, wondering what they’ll feel like when I finally get to kiss them.
“We’re going on a meditation retreat.”
Wait, what? Her words have my gaze flicking back to her eyes as a triumphant smile spreads across her face.
“A what?”
She pulls a flyer from her purse and shoves it at me. “It’s a two day retreat further up the mountain. Yoga and meditation and forest bathing.”
“Forest what?”
“Walking in the outdoors, getting back to nature.”
I take the flyer from her. I’ve seen it in the doctor’s office. He suggested mediation might be good for my recovery, but I told him there was no fucking way I was going to spend a day navel gazing.
“You want me to go meditate?”
