“But let me tell you something,” I said. “Nothing you can say, do or be is going to change how I feel about you. I’ve been in love with you for a while now. I don’t know when it happened. I don’t know why it happened. I don’t care. I just know that, now that I know how you feel, I won’t be staying away.”
He sighed, his hands coming up to scrub at his beard, cheeks, and eyes.
“That store you own, once people know that you’re mine, they won’t want to come there anymore,” he murmured.
“That store that I work at,” I corrected him. “And that store isn’t my dream. That store is my grandfather’s way of keeping himself busy. If it wasn’t there anymore, it would hurt me because he’d miss it. It wouldn’t hurt me because I’d miss it or care.” I paused. “And, just sayin’, Murphy really likes you. I think he’d choose you for me over the store any day of the week.”
“A lot of people hate me,” he tried.
“It’s pathetic,” I whispered as I reached for the IV bag that was connected to me and pulled it free of the little stand that it was hung on.
His head tilted sideways, his eyes narrowing in confusion. “What is?”
“How deep you’re having to dig to convince yourself you’re a bad person,” I said. “You’re making shit up on the fly now.”
His eyes narrowed.
“I’m not making shit up.”
I rolled my eyes and shuffled to the bathroom. “If you say so.”
After using the facilities, washing my hands, and brushing my teeth with a brand new toothbrush that I’d found underneath the bathroom sink, I made my way back out into the main room of the pool house to find it empty.
Feeling much better now that I had some fluids dumped into me, and time for whatever Melody had given me to wear off, I didn’t question my need to find Zach. I just went with it, running my hands through my hair as I held the IV bag with my teeth.
Once the tangles were sufficiently combed out, I realized that Zach was nowhere to be found even from what I could see through the pool house windows.
At least, I thought, anyway.
When I made it outside and called his name, he surprised me by being much closer than I thought.
“Zach?” I called out as I paused in the doorway.
“Here.”
I spun slightly to the left, finding him sitting on a lounge chair that’d been partially covered by the large palm trees that took up the front of the small pool house.
“Oh, hey,” I said softly, walking toward him.
He scooted over slightly, and I felt a flock of birds take flight in my stomach.
I knew exactly where he wanted me, and that was a damn sight closer to him than I’d originally intended.
When Zach chose to finally drop those barriers…
“Sit,” he ordered when I must’ve taken too long for his liking.
I bit the inside of my lip and started his way, only belatedly noticing that I’d somehow lost my shoes in the transport from the wedding venue to Lynn and Six’s pool house.
The grass was cold and wet on my feet, but I didn’t notice it all that much the closer I got to where he was sitting straddling the lounge chair now.
“Sit right here,” he ordered. “That way I can hang the IV bag on the tree right here.”
I carefully guided myself exactly where he wanted me, being super cautious not to brush myself against his skin in any way as I did.
The moment that my butt made contact with the soft chair, he relieved me of my IV bag and hung it from a twig that was jutting out from the tree.
Once his hands were empty, he reached forward and ran his fingertips along my collarbone.
“How are you feeling now?” he asked.
I swallowed a sudden ball of nerves and was proud of myself when my words came out even instead of husky and needy.
“I’m feeling much better,” I admitted. “Now I think I’m… hungry.”
He murmured something soft under his breath, and then I felt something soft press against the exposed skin at the back of my neck.
His lips.
He was skimming his lips along the smooth expanse of skin along my trapezius muscle.
It was everything.
And all he’d done was give me the most chaste of kisses.
What would it feel like when it was his mouth on mine? What would it feel like when we were skin to skin? What would it feel like when…
He growled and bit me on the shoulder, making me jump in surprise.
My eyes opened wide, and I couldn’t stop myself from staring off into the setting sun with a look of complete awe on my face.
“What was that for?” I asked breathlessly.
He didn’t reply. Instead, he caught my hips, and only when he’d stilled them did I realize that I’d been practically squirming between his legs.
And now I was very much touching him all over.
“You make me have zero control,” he murmured. “We need to take this slow…”
I couldn’t stop myself from turning around, hitching my leg up high over his thigh so that I could turn sideways between his splayed thighs.
“Why?” I all but demanded.
“Why what?” He paused, his eyes going to my thigh. My very exposed thigh.
The dress that I was wearing had already been short.
So short, in fact, that I’d considered wearing running shorts underneath it.
But the red dress and black running shorts would clash, so instead I chose to go with red boy-short underwear that covered the essentials but were also sexy enough that if I somehow flashed anyone, they wouldn’t automatically think ‘granny panties.’
Now, I was glad that I’d gone with the sexier of the panties.
In fact, I was really glad seeing as with the dress riding up so high, you could just barely make out the outline of the lace on the top of my thigh, giving away a hint of ‘more to come.’
He growled and tore his eyes away from my exposed thigh when I said, “Why do we have to go slow?”
He opened his mouth to say more, but I kind of… snapped.
One second I was being a good girl, minding my manners, and the next the thought of ‘why can’t I just take him’ rolled into my mind.
And I had to act on it.
Had to.
I didn’t want to.
I had to.
For one brief moment, his gaze locked with mine.
And the next, we were too close to stare into each other’s eyes.
One moment I was sitting between his legs, and the next I was straddling his very hard thighs, and pressing my body completely up against his.
He was hard all over.
Not soft in a few places.
No, he was hard.
His thighs were like straddling two rocks. His arms were like being surrounded by steel bands.
His abs were like lying against a board.
And his jaw was so finely chiseled that my hands felt like they were cupping stone when I kissed him.
In comparison, I was soft and plush.
When his hands cupped my thighs, his fingers sinking deep into the softest flesh, I couldn’t help the shiver of delight that rolled through me.
Though, it might’ve also been because his tongue finally touched my own.
My breathing halted completely in my chest, and all of a sudden, I was a wild woman in his arms.