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“If it bothers you, just tell me.”
Who is this perfect man?
We end up tangled together on the chaise lounge of his sectional couch with our now crumble-littered plates on the coffee table nearby next to our empty wineglasses.
“I really wish you had taken me home after the party,” I murmur.
Robby shifts and rolls me, so he’s braced above. One arm supports his weight, and the other trails his fingertips down my stomach. “Me too,” he says.
I breathe out. “You know, I watched you after you talked to me… you didn’t talk to any other girls that night.” His dark eyes study mine, and he sits up, balancing his weight on his knees on each side of me.
He runs a hand down his face. “Because as soon as I saw you, no one else mattered. Look, you weren’t ready for me. Or my intensity. If I had made a move that night, you weren’t going to make it out alive.”
I feel the hair on the back of my neck stand. “What—what do you mean?”
“It had to have been your first time away from the nest. You wouldn’t have wanted this serious of a relationship so early.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “You couldn’t have known what I wanted from a two-minute conversation at a frat party.” I sound sassier than I intend, and he rolls his eyes.
“Jesus Christ,” he says under his breath.
I lift my arms and run my hands under his shirt over his abs. “Am I ready for you now?”
“Better fucking be. Because if you weren’t mine six years ago, you sure as fuck are now.” He leans down, planting kisses on my collarbones. “You don’t know how many nights I stayed awake, thinking about what we would have done that night.” I shift my hips to grind against him.
It was all I wanted.
He unhooks the clips to my overalls, flinging the straps over my shoulders. He lowers the part of the overalls covering my chest and stomach like he’s unwrapping a present. Kisses are planted on my neck while his breath warms my skin. “But I wasn’t going to suffocate you,” he whispers, vibrating my skin with his voice.
“What was your plan? Stalk me on social media forever?” I whisper.
He lifts his body off me, hovering again. His strong hand finds my neck, fitting around it perfectly, and making my breath hitch where the pressure of his fingers rests. But it doesn’t scare me. Only excites me because he’s in Rook jeans and letting Rook seep through his cinnamon-roll persona. “Was just waiting for a signal, something to show you wanted this, too.” He waits, studying my face and expression. After a moment, he moves his hand from my neck, and it’s his turn to feel me up under my shirt. “So, what do you want from Daddy now?”
I burst out laughing, my knees bending behind him, and my belly rumbles from my laughter. “Oh, my God, you didn’t just.” I cut myself off.
Robby moves off me and off the couch and rips my overalls off with one motion. “Oh, I did, baby.”
“Hmm, only if you promise to ground me after,” I say with a smirk and bite my lip.
He smirks, too, but then pounces like he’s been starving for me for days.
Chapter Nineteen
Robby
Appa: I’m outside.
I’m grinning from ear to ear as I lock the front door behind me. Appa is leaning against the passenger door of her convertible with the top down in front of my house. The sun bounces off the smooth paint and glimmers on the windshield. She looks too damn cute in a pair of denim shorts with a tucked-in white tank top and red Chucks. Her curls rest in a messy bun, and her makeup is her usual minimal. But that bright red lipstick tinting her lips surprises me.
My Cali girl.
“You drive,” she says and tosses the key at me.
I catch it in midair. “Really?” I ask.
She lowers her sunglasses. “You didn’t expect me not to be a passenger princess, did you?”
I toss my duffel bag in the backseat and put my hands on her hips, one hand circling to her lower back. “Just surprised you trust me to drive your baby.”
