“Embarrassed again?”
“No.” He couldn’t meet my eyes.
“Your face tells a different story,” I said. “But I’ll be nice and let it go.”
“This is you being nice?”
“What, do you want me to be mean?”
“No. I think I’d actually keel over.”
I laughed. “Okay, no jokes this time. Are you okay if we test things again?”
“The rules from yesterday still apply. Do whatever you want.”
My heart skipped a beat just like it had the day before. “That’s a dangerous thing to offer, you know.”
“Well, it’s you.” He shrugged as if he was just as powerless to this trust between us as I was.
Now that I had the permission I needed, I stepped close. Raising my hand, I had to pause to make sure my body didn’t lock up. Even though I trusted him, this was still hard for me.
When I knew I would be okay, my hand went up to where his beard dotted his jawline. Before I touched him, I did the same thing I had yesterday. I gave myself one more moment, still wondering how I was able tofinallydo this.
Then I pushed forward.
The hair on Theo’s face was thick and tickled my fingers.All I could focus on was how different it felt compared to my own hair that I’d run my hands through a million times. For a while, my touch was featherlight as I explored his hair, then my fingers landed on the skin underneath.
Theo was so warm, like a campfire on a cold night. I forgot how much someone else’s body heat could feel so different.
My hands ran up his firm jaw, still breathless from how close we were. I then moved downward, ending up on the side of his neck.
And I frowned when I realized it was very tense.
I looked up at his eyes. They were closed and his lips were pursed. His jaw had clamped shut, as if he hated this.
That was not what I wanted him to feel.
I jerked my hands away, cutting the contact even though I still craved it. “Uh, sorry.”
Theo’s eyes fluttered open. “Done already?”
“You didn’t seem like you were enjoying it.” I stepped away and pressed my hands on my pants. “And, uh, I get it. It’s probably not fun being poked and prodded.”
“No, it’s?—”
I cut him off before he could tell me it was fine when it was obviously not. I had a feeling Theo would let me do this even if he were miserable.
“I should head out. Thank you for that, but you need to tell me when I go too far, remember?”
“Piper, wait.”
I was at my table, trying to stuff the laptop into my bag. “It’s all good. Seriously, I?—”
“Don’t run when I can’t grab you to stop you.” He was close this time, but not close enough to brush up against me.
My heart was hammering, and it had to be because I’d gone too far.
But when he said he’d grab me, one of my first thoughts wasyes, please.
