"So I should stop?"
"Hell no."
He walked her backward until her back hit the barn wall, his body pinning hers there. The position gave them some privacy from the main aisle, and he kissed her neck, finding that spot below her ear that made her shiver, and was rewarded with a moan that went straight to his groin.
"We should go," she said, but her head tilted back to give him better access, and her leg hooked around his hip, pulling him closer.
"We should," he agreed, his hand sliding under her shirt to find bare skin. She was so soft, so responsive. Every touch made her arch into him, every kiss drew another one of those sounds from her throat that were driving him crazy.
"This is complicated."
"Very complicated." His hand cupped her breast properly now, skin on skin, and she gasped. Her nipple was hard against his palm, begging for attention. He wanted to pull her shirt up, wanted to taste her, wanted to make her come apart right here against the barn wall.
"I don't do complicated."
"Neither do I." But his body was telling a different story, hard and aching and pressed against her in a way that left no doubt about what he wanted.
But neither of them moved to leave, and when she kissed him again, deeper and more demanding, he decided thatcomplicated might be exactly what he'd been looking for his whole life without knowing it.
That loving Vanessa Baldwin might be the only thing that had ever made sense.
Her hand slid down his stomach to the waistband of his jeans, and he caught her wrist.
"If you touch me right now, this is going to be over embarrassingly fast," he said against her mouth.
"I want to touch you."
"Not here. Not like this." He pulled back enough to look at her, to see the desire in her eyes that matched his own. "When I finally get my hands on you properly, it's going to be in a bed where I can take my time. Where I can taste every inch of you and make you scream my name."
Her pupils dilated at his words, and she bit her lip in a way that made him want to bite it for her.
"That's a promise," he said, kissing her once more, deep and thorough. "Soon."
The sound of a car pulling into the parking lot broke them apart, and Vanessa stepped back with wide eyes and kiss-swollen lips, her shirt askew and her hair mussed from his hands.
She looked thoroughly kissed.
"We should really go," she said, trying to smooth her hair and straighten her clothes.
"Yeah, we should."
The drive home was silent, filled with the kind of tension that had nothing to do with awkwardness and everything to do with both of them thinking about what had just happened and what it meant for whatever careful boundaries they'd been trying to maintain.
What it meant that neither of them wanted boundaries anymore.
His hand rested on her thigh for most of the drive, his thumb tracing lazy circles that made her breath hitch. Every time he glanced over, she was looking at him with an intensity that made him want to pull over and finish what they'd started.
When they reached her house, she turned to him before getting out of the truck.
"Dustin?"
"Yeah?"
"Whatever this is, whatever's happening between us... I need you to know that I'm not looking for anything temporary. I've had enough temporary in my life."
The words should have terrified him. Should have sent him scrambling for escape routes and excuses. Instead, they settled into his soul and stayed there, feeling more right than anything he'd ever heard.
"What are you looking for?"
