She swallows again, her gaze dropping to my lips, which rest against her knuckles. “Will you tell me if this isn’t working for you?” she asks, the words barely audible.
“I will, I promise,” I immediately say. “Although for the record, I don’t...well...yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem.”
I don’t think it will, but what the hell would I know? I meant it when I said I’d never had a real relationship before. Never dated, either. I was the hook-up guy, the guy you came to for a fun night.
And I was okay with that. I wasn’t looking for anything more.
Until now.
Which is really fucking weird.
“Anything else?” I ask when she doesn’t continue.
“Do you have any ground rules?”
Chuckling, I kiss her knuckles once more before finally letting go of her hand. “Just one.”
“Okay, and?”
I smile, shifting my chair back around to the opposite side of the small table. “That you’re always honest with me too,” I tell her. “I want to know what you’re feeling and what you want. Don’t be afraid to get pissed off or think you need to hide whatever’s going on with that asshole ex of yours, okay?”
Quinn stares across the table at me, her eyes wide and unblinking as she takes me in. She watches me for so long that I start to laugh, shaking my head a little as I ask, “What?”
A slow smile pulls at her mouth now as she says, “Has anyone ever told you you’re kinda perfect?”
Now I do laugh. “Yeah, babe, all the time,” I tease with a wink.
Quinn blushes, and it’s all kinds of adorable as she swats her napkin across the table at me. I catch it, standing and shaking it out before I lean down and lay it across her lap, resting one hand on the back of her chair.
She tilts her head back a little so she’s looking up at me, and I watch as my other hand cups her jaw, my thumb brushing across her cheek.
“This is all sorts of new for me too, Quinn. And yeah, I’m kinda scared about all of it,” I admit. “But...I also want to try because I think you’re worth it.”
She laughs at this, her eyes closing briefly as she says, “Oh, you do, huh?”
I open my mouth to answer, but instead, I close the distance between us, dropping my lips to hers in a kiss that’s so different from any kiss I’ve ever had before. It’s a kiss that’s not going any further. A kiss without an agenda or a motive.
But it’s a kiss that’s so fucking perfect, I don’t ever want it to stop, even though I know it has to.
Quinn’s lips respond almost immediately, brushing against mine as my fingers tighten on her jaw. I feel the tip of her tongue teasing me, and for a second, I give in, returning the favor before I pull back.
“Fuck,” I breathe, straightening, trying like hell to remove the temptation of kissing her again.
Quinn is still staring up at me, her cheeks a little flushed and her lips parted. With a laugh, I brush my thumb across her mouth before walking back around to my side of the table.
Taking a seat, I lay my own napkin across my lap and say, “Okay, so we’re dating.”
“No, come on,” she says, throwing a cherry tomato at me. “Seriously, what’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done?”
I laugh, catching the tomato before popping it into my mouth. Tonight has been fun. Easy and relaxed now that we’ve had our ground rules talk. The sexual tension is still there—holy fuck, is it still there—but it also feels different now.
Like we’re both finally on the same page with what we want here.
“What, you don’t think that whole thing with my boardshorts busting open while surfing was embarrassing?” I ask, reminding her of the day she lost her bikini when she was first learning to surf.
Quinn giggles, shaking her head as she says, “No way, I think that’s probably pretty tame compared to what you might have done.”
I scoff, a hand on my heart as I say, “Quinn, what are you suggesting?”
