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“Thanks, but I have to take a rain check.” I smile as I smooth a stray hair from her face, letting my fingers linger on her neck. “If you come up, I’m going to be late to work.”
“I’m sure John would understand,” she says, the look in her eyes pure temptation. “I mean, from what you’ve said, he understands that kissing is very important.”
“Five dates,” I remind her before adding in a softer voice, “I don’t want to rush things with you.”
“Why not?” she asks, her brow furrowing. “Because if it’s just the first-time thing, I promise you, Nick, I’m not going to do anything I’m not ready to do.”
“I know, I just… I don’t want to mess this up,” I confess, my breath catching as her lips move closer to mine. “I don’t want to scare you away.”
“I’m not scared,” she whispers. “Not at all.” And then she kisses me. Even though I’m covered in bugs and probably smell like gasoline and mud from the mess shifting around in the back of Dan’s truck.
It’s a hell of a kiss—sweet and sexy at the same time, with a warmth that soaks through my skin, deep into my bones, penetrating something deep inside me that a kiss usually doesn’t. It doesn’t last long, a minute at most, but when it’s over, I feel less alone than I have in a long time.
“See you tomorrow,” she whispers against my lips.
“Tomorrow,” I echo as I slide out of the car.
I stand on the sidewalk, lifting a hand as she turns the car around and starts back to her place, my head spinning and my heart beating faster.
I don’t know what to call this new, post-kiss feeling, but I know I want more of it. I want to wrap Melody and me in that feeling and hide away from the world for a few months.
Or years, or maybe an entire lifetime…
“I knew you had your own code, baby brother,” comes a low, familiar voice from beneath the awning of the convenience store under my apartment. “But I didn’t think you were a liar.”
Nash. Shit.
So much for hiding from the world.
Cursing beneath my breath, I turn to find my brother stepping out of the shadows wearing a very disapproving look on his face.
Chapter 16
Melody
After a restless sleep—plagued by skinny-dipping sex dreams starring Nick that make me wish I’d been brave enough to take it all off at the lake—I’m up early going through my finances, figuring out if I can afford to surprise my boyfriend.
My boyfriend…
I can’t remember ever being this excited to call someone my BF. But seriously, a thrill goes through me every time I so much as think the word in relation to Nick. Even though our date ended in disaster, I had so much fun with him yesterday, and I can’t wait for our date tonight.
Seriously, I can’t wait.
I have to see him sooner—hopefully with good news.
After a little creative budgeting, I feel confident I can swing the impound lot fees and head into work to prep appetizers for an intimate wedding Lark and Aria are catering without me tonight.
By four, I’m finished in the kitchen, and by four thirty, I’m pulling up in front of the tattoo shop in the Midget, grinning as I spot Nick through the front window. He’s talking to a man at the counter, but as soon as he sees the Midge, his eyes widen, and his jaw drops. He says something to his customer, and then he hops over the counter in one fluid motion that sends a zing of awareness sizzling down my spine.
I definitely have it bad for this man.
Just watching him jump over stuff in a manly fashion is enough to make me tingle all over.
“What did you do?” he asks as I slide out of the car and slam the door behind me.
“I got your car back,” I say, grinning as I hold out the spare key John was good enough to drop by the Ever After kitchen this afternoon.
“You shouldn’t have done this,” Nick says, not looking nearly as pleased as I’d hoped he’d be and not reaching out to take the key, either.
“I wanted to.” I shrug and let my arm drift back to my side.
“It’s too much, Mel.” He frowns at the car.
“No, it’s not. I checked my budget for the month. I can make it work as long as I do dinner at my parents’ place a few times. And they own several barbecue restaurants, so there’s always extra food in their fridge. It’s no big deal.”
Nick shakes his head, still looking displeased. “Three hundred dollars is a big deal.”
I prop my hands on my hips and keep smiling, refusing to let this gesture turn sour. “Okay, but wouldn’t you have done the same for me? If it was my car that had been towed while we were on a date and you had the money to get it back for me?”
