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“But you do.”
I shrugged. “I grew up in Virginia. I have the inside scoop.” I also had the internet and a boyfriend I really wanted to impress.
“This is where you’re bringing me for a date?” he asked, glancing back at the place once more.
“You like water. You’re kinda like a fish,” I told him, making his lips twitch. “It’s quiet too.”
As he sank his teeth into his lower lip, his smile vanished. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
He made a sound. “This doesn’t really seem like your kind of place.”
“Baby, any place you’re at is my kind of place.”
His fingers tangled in the bracelets around his wrist.
“Hey,” I said, the sound of the rain hitting the roof nearly drowning out my voice. Grasping his chin, I pushed up his face so I could see him. “I want to be here with you. There is nowhere else I’d rather be. I want to hold your hand and walk around in the low lighting, push you into darkened corners, and kiss you. Maybe this isn’t my kind of place, but it seems like it could be our kind of place.”
“You’re good at being a boyfriend,” he whispered.
I laughed, but inside, my heart swelled, putting pressure on my ribcage. “Does that mean you want to go inside?”
He nodded.
Reaching behind him, I tugged the hood lying against his shoulders up over his head to help conceal him from the rain.
Since the black denim jacket I wore didn’t have a hood, I reached behind the driver’s seat for the black baseball hat I kept there and pulled it low over my forehead.
“Ready?” I asked, looking back at him.
He was watching me from beneath the hood, his face shadowed, but not even the shadows could conceal the glittering intensity with which he stared.
“Matthew?”
He leaned forward, angling so he fit beneath the brim of the hat. His lips brushed over mine softly at first, lifting enough for our eyes to connect. My stomach fluttered, and the air around us crackled as we stared at each other for several silent beats. And then his face dipped again, a lingering kiss that had us drowning in each other as the outside world drowned in the heavy rain.
Intimacy enclosed us, the interior of the car growing warm as our lips met again and again, our passion a secret kept by the concealment of our clothes. Pushing inside his hood, my fingers grazed across the sensitive skin of his neck, making him lean even closer.
Somewhere across the parking lot, a car alarm wailed, and he stiffened. Instead of pulling back abruptly, I gentled the kiss until our lips parted.
His eyes were hazy, breathing choppy, and his hair flopped over his forehead. The urge to cancel this entire date and push him into the back seat to have my way with him right there in the rainy lot crossed my mind.
Then crossed it again.
“Think they have an octopus?” he asked, voice husky.
I laughed. “How about we go find out?”
We sprinted through the rain, splashing onto the sidewalk, and I held the door so he could go inside. It always seemed to catch him off guard, so I always made a point to do it. He pushed back his hood, running a hand through his soft, dark hair, already completely distracted by a huge cylinder-shaped aquarium reaching all the way to the ceiling.
He walked toward it, staring at the massive shapes of bright coral, crystalline water, and colorful fish swimming around.
Pulling the hat off my head, I fastened it to one of the belt loops on my black jeans and went to the counter to purchase two tickets.
When I was done, he was still standing there staring at the display.
“Never thought I’d be jealous of fish,” I said, pocketing my wallet and approaching with the tickets.
