Shocked by my outrage, he leans back against the car door, trying to put as much distance between us as the cab of the truck will allow. “No,” he answers slowly like he’s talking to a time bomb that’s about to go off.
“Exactly, you dummy!” I yell too loudly for the small, enclosed space. I’m so mad I’m tempted to rattle the truck with powerful winds so he understands that I mean business. However, I decide a show of magic would probably distract from the point I’m trying to make, especially if I accidentally tip the whole truck over. “I fell in love with you, and at no point have you hidden what that is. You’ve been unapologetically you since the moment we met. It’s one of the things I admire most about you.” Twisting my hands into fists to keep myself from shaking him out of his sudden idiocy, I continue through gritted teeth. “You’ve made it abundantly clear thatfeelingspractically make you break out in hives. All I want to know is if we can be official, so I know what the hell I can act on.” I throw my hands up in the air with a huff, lightly smacking them against the ceiling. “Can I call you my boyfriend? Or, well, one of them. Connor agreed to boyfriend status first. But can I hug and kiss you? Will that be something you want? Can I—”
I don’t get to finish my tirade, because Donovan grabs the back of my head and kisses me like it’s the last thing he’s ever going to do on Earth. It’s hard and all-consuming, with a harsh collision of lips and teeth. My scalp stings from the grip of his hand in my hair, and I feel drunk on his scent of musk and leather. He groans into my mouth, and I echo with a moan of my own. All thoughts of being angry disappear, along with the ability to recall my own name.
As fast as the kiss starts, it’s over. Breathing heavily, he leans his forehead against mine and chuckles. It’s a sexy sound that vibrates from his chest and shoots happy tingles down my spine. “I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
Blinking a few times, I attempt to recall what we were talking about. Something about feelings and how Donovan sucks at them. Still dizzy from his amorous distraction, I mumble, “That’s right. You shouldn’t have.”
He flashes me his usual cocky grin. “Yeah, Angel, I’ll be your boyfriend.”
My stomach flutters with happiness and a pinch of anxiety, because holy hell, I’m really doing this. I’m actually going to attempt to date all of the guys.Two down, three to go.
“You’re really okay with me dating the others too?” I ask, sitting up and tucking my hair behind my ears to hide how my hands tremble. “Assuming they want to.”
Donovan sighs, returning to an upright position, and bounces his fingers against the steering wheel. “To be honest, it’s the reason I said yes. The others can give you what I can’t, and I don’t have to feel bad about it.” He watches me carefully when he adds, “Are you still cool with me and Nolan fooling around?”
The top of my head all the way down to my toes turns a vibrant red as my imagination runs wild, thinking of the things they do together… and how Donovan invited me to join in. My heart beats in an odd staccato, and it’s getting hard to hear over. Stuffing my hands underneath my thighs, I nod and blurt in a voice one octave too high, “Yeah. That’s fine. Totally cool. You, uh, do you.”
Smooth. Yeah, hi, mole people. I’m looking for a one-bedroom bungalow, possibly somewhere in the vicinity of a hole that will, in fact, swallow me whole.
“You do you?” He frowns again, his dark eyebrows falling low over his eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay with it? I’d understand now that we’re official” —he winces over the word, clearly too close to talking about feelings— “that you might…feeldifferently about it.” The last bit is said with such strain it makes me laugh, and my unease subsides.
“Yes, I’m really okay with it,” I assure him, speaking a little more evenly. However, the butterflies in my stomach are still doing summersaults, and I can’t help wiggling in my seat.
“But?” Donovan supplies, his gaze assessing my profile.
Shaking my head, I answer, “No buts. I’m asking you to be okay with me dating all of your friends. It’d be hypocritical of me to tell you that you can’t be… involved with anyone else.”
Through my peripheral vision, I notice one of his eyebrows rise, and there’s an odd quirk to his lips. “Involved?”
“You sound like a parrot.” I huff, crossing my arms. “Are you going to repeat everything I say?”
“No, just the weird shit,” he teases, amusement painting his handsome features. “If it isn’t about Nolan and me, then why do you look so freaked out?”
“I’m not freaked out,” I counter, but it sounds a little too strained to be true.
Donovan leans back, also crossing his arms—his biceps looking like they are trying to break free from his tight, gray, long-sleeved shirt—and he waits for the silence to break me. It works irritatingly fast.
“You and Nolan don’t freak me out,” I grumble while staring out the windshield. There’s a small bird with blue, gray, and white feathers hopping from one exposed branch to another, chirping in a single sharp trill. Following it with my eyes, I admit to what is making me self-conscious. “It’s… Last time we talked about it, you… invited me to join. It’s not that I don’t want to, but you both have… done stuff that I haven’t.” My voice grows small while my cheeks burn like small suns are attached to my face. “I… uh… know that there’s stuff I’m not ready for that you… are?”
“You’re not ready to fuck. That’s fine,” he surmises, shrugging like it’s no big deal because to him it isn’t.
“That’s it?” I ask, the phrase coming out a little more screechy than I mean it to. “All the constant innuendos,thatdance, the kissing, the touching, and it’s just ‘that’s fine?’”
“I’m an asshole, Callie, but I’m notthatkind of asshole,” he replies bluntly, staring hard at my bizarrely exasperated expression. “Do I want to fuck you? Yes, I’m not going to lie about that, but I only want to do it when you’re a hundred percent on board. That’s part of the fun. Until then, I will go as far as you’re okay with.” A wicked grin takes over his mouth. “Besides, there’s a lot of things to try long before we get to the deed, and if you let me, I wanna try them all out on you.”
Recalling what I got up to with Connor last night, I get a bit light-headed imagining what Donovan has up his sleeve. My head feels loose and wobbly as I nod, my words lost on my tongue.
He leans down so his mouth is against my ear, his hot breath fluttering my hair, and murmurs, “If I didn’t think Connor would send a literal pack of wolves to track our asses down, I’d show you some of it right now.” His hand slides up my thigh to illustrate his point, my girl jeans doing nothing to protect me from his natural heat, which triggers my very annoying girl hormones.
I’m going to burst into flames, and all he’s going to do is laugh and roast marshmallows.
“But he will, and I like being in one piece.” He sighs, sitting back and casually starting the truck like he didn’t turn me into a melted puddle with the suggestion of doing naughty things right here on the side of the road.
“You’re the devil,” I state with a glare.
“Nope, just his several greats grandson.” He chuckles and pulls out onto the road, heading toward an afternoon of never-ending awkwardness.
