“I’m so afraid of you,” she whispered, still facing forward.
Her admission grabbed him by the heart. Lee leaned forward and got to his knees just behind her. “Of me?” He pressed a kiss to her neck. “Don’t be afraid of me. I’d never hurt you.”
She tilted her head, giving him more access. “Yes, you will,” she murmured, yet she still melted under his mouth.
“I won’t.” Her skin was so soft, and the patchouli and vanilla scent of her neck drugged him, but her words made him ache. “I promise.”
He was ready to give anything to be out of that kayak so he could properly take her in his arms, show her that he meant every word.
“Please come home with me,” he begged.
Wren tilted her chin back, giving him her mouth, which he gladly took.
The invitation thrilled him. He had to take her home. “Please.”
Even as she kissed him back, Lee could feel her struggle, feel the civil war she waged within herself. He loved that she had a side that fought for him, but he needed it to win. He was about to tell her as much when she pulled back and sighed.
“Okay.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
WREN COULDN’T THINKof a thing to say. She sat in Lee’s front seat, clutching Victor to her, and watched them swallow the highway.
Lee had rowed them back to shore at breakneck speed. It had made her laugh at the time, but now that they were actually heading to his house, she was terrified.
And to make matters worse, he knew she was terrified. Lee Hawthorne had a power over her that she couldn’t understand, but that she also couldn’t deny. He was unlike any man she’d ever met.
For one thing, he mattered. What he thought mattered. How he felt mattered. Especially how he felt about her. She wanted to be able to walk away from him, yet she couldn’t.
Being with him felt too good. Better than anything.
Lee finally broke the silence when they turned off Pinhook onto University Avenue.
“Want a snowball?”
It was the last thing she expected. The way he’d kissed her in the kayak left little room for misinterpretation. He’d invited her back to his house and, even though it was the middle of the afternoon, Wren knew exactly what he intended when they got there.
But a snowball?
“Um… sure?”
Her confusion seemed to amuse him. “What? You don’t like snowballs?”
Wren blinked. “Snowballs are fine…”
“I love snowballs.”
She couldn’t help but smile at this. “Of course you do. You’re a big kid." At her words, his smile faltered, and before she consciously chose to, Wren laid a hand on his wrist. “I mean that in the best possible way.”
He watched her for a moment, his eyes unreadable, before he shifted his gaze back to the road. But the second he did, Lee grabbed her hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed it.
He made a left onto Johnston Street and a right onto St. Mary by the university. “Olde Tyme okay?”
“Sure.”
Lee turned onto Brooke Avenue and parallel parked just past Olde Tyme Grocery. “Would you clip on Victor’s leash?” he asked as he got out of the Jeep. The puppy had fallen asleep in her lap, but as soon as the clip of his leash snapped closed, he bolted up. Lee opened her door and offered her his hand.
Wren was quite aware he had the best manners of any guy she’d ever dated. He held her hand as they made their way to the back of the line at Murph’s Olde Tyme Snowball Stand. As always, if Murph’s was open, there was a line.
