“Not even to take with you?” he enticed, snapping me out of my trance. Lifting my gaze from her mouth, I shot the guy a glare. He hadn’t been anything but professional during our meal, but now he was getting flirty, and if he kept it up, he was going to end his shift minus a few teeth. “Maybe enjoy a midnight treat?”
“No, no, we’re good,” she muttered, heat filling her cheeks.
“Just the check,” I bit out, and wisely, he went to get it for us.
Reaching across the table, I took both her hands in mine. “You have two choices.” Her eyes brightened, making me smile. “We can watch a movie at the theater that’s only a few miles away, or we can go back to my place and hang out until you’re ready for me to take you home.”
“Number two,” she said in a rush. “Definitely number two.”
Her blush filled her entire face, spreading down her neck and across her chest. I was the one licking my lips this time as I forced myself to keep my eyes on her face. Fuck, that pretty shade of pink was going to be the death of me.
She excused herself to go to the bathroom while I paid the bill. As she left the ladies’ room, I saw her with her phone to her ear. She was smiling at whatever the caller was saying, but by the time she reached me, she had ended the call. Putting her phone in her purse, she took the hand I held out to her.
“Everything okay?” I asked, wondering who she’d been speaking to.
“It’s perfect,” she said softly, leaning into me as we walked to my car. I could feel eyes on us, but I ignored the stares, knowing that if I wanted to be with Doe, I had to get used to everyone looking at her. “Tonight has been great.”
“It’s not over yet,” I murmured, pressing her up against the passenger door. I heard the catch in her breath and lowered my head, needing a taste of her to hold me over until we got back to my place. That I was showing every dickhead still staring at her who she belonged to was just a bonus.
But the moment her lips touched mine, everything else disappeared. There was just her. Her taste, the little moan that escaped her when I thrust my tongue into her mouth, how her fingers burned through the material of my shirt, the way her curves molded to mine like we’d been doing this for eternity.
The sound of a vehicle door slamming close by pulled me back to reality. Groaning, I lifted my head. She looked up at me with passion-glazed eyes, her lips swollen and begging me to kiss her again. “Jenner,” she breathed.
“I’m trying to take this slow, little lamb. Show you that you mean more to me than just getting off. But when you look at me like that, I can’t think straight.”
“That only makes me want you more.” She slid her hand down my abdomen until her fingers reached the top of my pants, and she began to torture me as she played with the button. “Thank you for being so considerate, but I don’t want to take things slow.” She looked up at me through her lashes. I knew it was because of her shyness, but she had no idea just how sexy that was. “I know what I want, Jenner.”
Her fingers dipped inside, playing with the elastic of my boxer briefs, and I nearly came right there. Capturing her hand before I embarrassed myself, I pressed her palm over my heart. “I need you to more than want me, baby. Until you are sure of your feelings for me, let’s take this slow.”
She tilted her head back, surprise filling those blue eyes, making them sparkle in the overhead streetlight. “H-how do you feel about me, Jenner?”
That question was so loaded, I wasn’t sure how to respond. It was too soon to confess just how far gone I was for her. She wouldn’t believe me if I told her that she’d buried herself deep into my heart at first glance. No one would. Pixie had laughed when I’d told her how Doe had knocked my feet from beneath me. She was too jaded to believe that something so fantastical could happen to anyone.
But I could tell that it had taken a lot for Doe to ask about my feelings for her.
“Do you feel that?” I husked, pressing her hand harder into my chest. “How my heart is pounding right now? That’s because of you. When you’re this close, I can’t catch my breath. It’s not just because I ache to be inside you. I want to spend every minute of every day with you right beside me, little lamb.”
9
Doe
Jenner opened my door, and I had to blink a few times before reality flooded back in. The night flew by, and now I was home. I looked up at the house I’d grown up in, the place that had been my sanctuary from the outside world and the people of West Bridge. Right then, it didn’t give me the sense of peace it normally did.
I didn’t want to be here because Jenner wouldn’t be here with me.
After dinner, and his parking-lot confession that he wanted to be beside me every minute of every day, we’d gone back to his place and cuddled on his couch while watching a movie. I’d been so lost in how good it felt to have him hold me that I had no clue what the movie had even been about.
At midnight, he’d groaned like he was being physically tortured and said he needed to take me home. I’d had to bite my tongue to keep from begging him to let me stay, but he’d been adamant about taking things slow. When he’d put going back to his place on the table as an option for the rest of the evening, I’d been nervously excited for what I’d hoped would happen. But he was true to his word, and we hadn’t done more than share a few chaste kisses from the time we entered his apartment.
Multiple times, I’d come close to confessing my feelings for him, but each time, I’d clamped my mouth shut to hold the words inside. What if I told him how much he already meant to me—and for how long I’d felt that way—and he didn’t believe me? Or worse, laughed?
The fear of his reaction had kept me quiet even as my body had begged me to confess every last detail of my feelings for him.
Taking my hand, Jenner helped me from the car and pulled me against him. “What’s wrong, baby?” he murmured, brushing his lips over the tip of my nose. “You’ve been so quiet. Did I do something wrong?”
“No,” I assured him with a small smile and a shake of my head. “I just have a lot on my mind.”
He cupped the side of my face, his eyes full of concern. “Tell me what’s going on in that beautiful head. Did I scare you earlier?”
“You could never scare me. I’m just sad our date is over.” I lowered my lashes, fighting the sting of tears. Why did the thought of being away from him even overnight hurt so much? “I-I don’t want to leave you.”
His free hand grabbed hold of my hip, pulling my lower body hard against his. I could feel how much he wanted me, and with my chest pressed against his, I thought I caught the faint sound of his heart drumming against his ribs. “Me too, little lamb. I would give anything for you to spend the night sleeping in my arms.”
I melted into him. “Yes, please. I want that so badly, you don’t even know.”
His fingers bit into my hip through my dress. “Soon, baby.”
Clenching my eyes closed, I hugged his waist. If I couldn’t spend the night in his arms, I wanted to hold on to this moment a little longer. We stood there like that for several minutes. The front porch light flipped on, alerting us that one or both of my parents knew we were out there.