SIX
I don’t want this date to end. Brooklyn is enthralling with brown eyes the color of espresso, a smile that’s sweet and sexy, and a laugh that twitches my cock. Her personality has different sides. She’s funny, outgoing and outspoken one minute and then the next she’ll drop her head full of shyness. She’s sexy as fuck and alluring as ever.
She makes me want again. Want to get to know her. Want to taste her. Want to be with her.
The want is so intense and potent that it’s slowly taking over me.
After settling the check and walking outside, I hatch a plan—a diversion from the end so I can spend just a little more time with her. I’m certain she feels the extraordinary pull between our bodies just as I do.
Shoving my hands into my pockets, I peek down at her with a smirk. “Option A or option B?”
Those beautiful eyes glance up to me with bewilderment. “Options? For what?”
“Well…I’m not ready for this date to end. Unless you are?”
She sinks her teeth into the pouty bottom lip and she shakes her head.
This is her shy side.
“Option A or option B?” I repeat, not giving her hints to anything.
She looks toward the night sky, pondering before she flashes a smile back to me. “B.”
Thank fuck. I nod my head for her to follow. I’ve got nothing planned, no ideas, but I don’t care if we end up on the bench in the park as long as I’m spending more time with her so we can get to know each other better. As we continue to walk the block, the bowling alley appears like a godsend and I jump on it. I turn into the parking lot with Brooklyn beside me.
“Bowling?” Her awe beams from her. “I haven’t been bowling in years.”
“Neither have I,” I admit. “It’ll be fun.”
After we grab our shoes and our bowling balls, we make our way to our lane and get ready. Brooklyn enters our names as I finish tying my laces and place my shoes under the plastic seat.
Looking up, I crack up at our names. “Beauty and the hunk?”
She lifts a shoulder. “If you want to be the beauty, I’m okay with it.”
This is her outgoing side.
I flash her a grin. “You’re definitely the beauty.” I tip my chin toward the lane. “Beauty first.”
She poses, standing with the ball in front of her, knees bent, that impeccable ass of hers right in my line of sight. She takes a few steps and then flings the ball, sending it roaring down the lane and slamming into the seven pin.
She turns, her pretty face screwed up tight. “Practice shot. That one doesn’t count.” Her laugh is melodic. “I hope you know you’re getting your ass kicked.”
Smirking, I arch a brow, a little dubious of her threat. “Is that so?”
“Yep,” she chirps and grabs her ball when it springs up from the return. She poses again and sends it slinging down the lane, knocking all the pins down.
Her arms shoot above her head. “Spare!” she shouts and then does a little sashay, her lithe hips swaying back and forth on the way back to her seat. She folds her fingers toward her and blows on her fingertips. “I’ve still got it.”
I chuckle, grabbing my bowling ball, and send it down the lane for a “Strike!” I mock her little show, throwing my hands above my head and doing a ridiculous attempt at her triumphant dance.
She crosses her arms over her chest and purses her lips out in a cute pout. “Beginner’s luck.”
I spread my arm out gesturing for her to continue her turn. “Show me how it’s done, Beauty.”
Seven frames later and she’s up by ten. Her sexy mouth and her little dances with her hips swaying are extremely distracting.
Suddenly the lights kick off and then black lights flicker on, illuminating the room. Bright greens, yellows, and pinks glow in the darkness. Brooklyn’s eyes are wide, full of astonishment as she looks around, taking in the room. Her mouth is parted with her hands to her chest. She’s beaming.
“I’ve never been to a nighttime bowl,” she says over the music.
Her words are mixed with excitement and it tightens something deep in my chest and causes my pride to swell. “Glad I can bring you something new. Maybe now I’ll be able to win.”
Her eyes flicker when she laughs. “In your dreams.”
In my dreams she’s wearing a sexy blue teddy with lace barely covering her nipples and plunging down to her torso, wrapping around her hips.
I shake the dirty thoughts, just as she hits another strike. The crashing sound echoes in the already loud area. Shit. I’m on my feet waiting at the ledge and watching her do a little moon walk victory dance. She isn’t paying a lick of attention as she backs toward me and I don’t move although I know she’s about to run into me.
I want to feel her body.
Her back hits my chest. She spins and stumbles into me, her hands pressing against my chest, and I clutch her hips to help stabilize her. Since she’s on the step she’s more on my eye level, her face mere inches away. Our gazes lock. A current of energy races through me and ricochets between us. I can’t hear the music any longer as I’m completely lost in her eyes.
Her breath hitches, her mouth parts as she sweeps her tongue along her bottom lip, glistening the pink skin. My dick grows tight against my jeans.
“Sorry,” she murmurs breathlessly.
The power of the pull, the intense urge to kiss her, jumbles my thoughts. It’s been a really, really fucking long time since I’ve felt this.
I want to kiss her so hard her damn lips tingle and are swollen when I’m done. I want to steal her breath and have her moaning into me as I get a taste.
I want her.
And that alone makes me release my grip from her. I need her to want me and not become just another woman I fuck and send on their way. That’s what I’m good at—the unemotional attachments, the one nights of sex and nothing after. But with Brooklyn, I want her to get to know the real Nathan Bennett. The man I am, not the man I’m portrayed to be.
“You’re killing me,” I say thickly and then nod toward the screen above us.
The smile she wears is both perplexed and triumphant. “Yeah. I, um,” she rips her gaze from mine and takes a step away, “I told you I’d kick your ass.”
“It’s not over,” I warn and it’s not about the damn game. The kiss will happen tonight.
She beat me. Not by much, but a win is a win and she’s celebrating way too hard. I chuckle as I watch her shake her hips, but when she does the cabbage patch, I double over cracking up.
We return our shoes and are heading out the door when a familiar face recognizes me.
“Nathan.” Kip Hock, one of my employees in sales, says with a smile. “Strange to see you out and having fun.” His gaze shifts to Brooklyn through his thin-framed glasses just as two younger girls who are his spitting image come to his side.
“Kip.” I shake his hand. “This is Brooklyn.” I introduce her but then quickly turn the focus off her. Too much gossip isn’t good. “I didn’t know you bowled.”
He wraps his arms around the girl with her hair slicked back into a sleek ponytail. “Jackie turned fourteen today and wanted to come to cosmic bowling so her old man could show her a thing or two.”