Page 66 of Wayward

Eyebrow waggle.

It took a moment. “No, no. That’s not necessary or— I don’t need to be wooed. You can have me right now. Let’s go back to my room and—”

“Absolutely not,” he said flatly. “You just blushed because I told you you’re beautiful. That’s crazy to me. You should know that already. But you’ve been walking around all your life being scary and in charge and having people piss themselves if they disappoint you. Am I right?”

That was a hundred percent true. “Well, yes, but—”

“And I’ll bet you that a lot of men and women you met were thinking, I’d like a taste of that, but you just assumed what you were looking at was cold, abject terror.”

“Listen, I’m not stupid,” I said defensively. “I know when someone—”

“So tell me yes. Tell me you wanna date me, only me, and you’re going to give this whole thing, us, a chance.”

Now there were parameters? “We don’t have to label what—”

“You don’t want to date me?”

In the past, nothing was ever defined. If I saw someone I had fucked before, if I was up for it and they were free, we’d screw a second time. But I’d never dated anyone in my life. I would never put a bull’s-eye on another person, tell my father and the rest of the family that yes, that was the one, they had my heart. And I couldn’t anyway. My father would have put a bullet in me before he allowed me to date or declare my love, my feelings, for a man. That was impossible.

Gale said, “Maybe I misread what—”

“No,” I nearly yelled, which was even louder in the small space of the bathroom. He’d been wrapped around me all night, and he thought I wasn’t serious about him? “No,” I repeated, clearing my throat. “You didn’t misread anything.”

His smile was blinding, lighting up his face. “You do want to date me.”

“I just—I fuckin’ want you. Period.”

“Okay,” he said, leaning in and pressing a kiss to the side of my neck, then to my cheek. “Good. So will you have dinner with me tonight?”

“You and I both know it’s us and Ada for dinner for the foreseeable future,” I groused. “We can date, but we both feel the same about her. Even though you say you have a job, you took care of her too.”

“I did. You’re right. We might have to wait on the date night for a bit, but in the meantime, we can talk and walk and let me sleep in your bed or you can sleep in mine.”

“I would like to see your place and your bed.”

“Excellent,” he agreed. “Now I’m leaving to shower. I’ll come back before I leave for work.”

“You’re leaving?” I was suddenly feeling a bit lost for some reason. And some of it was him, and some of it was the night-and-day difference of my new reality. Hard to get your sea legs when the boat was nowhere to be seen.

“Yeah. But not before I come back and kiss you goodbye.”

“You could kiss me now.”

He scoffed. “I could, but I’ve been looking at the curve of your ass under that towel for just a bit too long at this point, and my thoughts are not romantic.”

“You wanna fuck me,” I said, and because I’d only ever done the fucking myself, just the words sent a jolt of electricity through me.

“Yes. So much,” he confessed and bolted from the room without another word.

“Coward,” I yelled after him.

“I’m showing restraint, you shit,” he growled.

He wanted me but didn’t want to mess up. I couldn’t think of anything more romantic. I would have told him so, but my phone distracted me with all the pinging notifying me of texts and emails. The Farley name said money, and everyone wanted to help me.

When I got out of my bedroom, changed, I heard Misha’s bells jingle and let him out into the tiny enclosed yard behind the house. The fence slats were too close together for him to get through, and while I stayed out there and watched him, eyes peeled for predators, I was thinking that whatever would try and get him had to be damn ballsy to get him so close to the back door.

Inside, Ada had made me an egg scramble with pepper-jack cheese, turkey sausage, green peppers, onions, assorted spices, and had garnished it with jalapeños. I also had toast with lavender honey from a nearby farm that Ada made decorative-lidded jars for.