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He looked over. “Me too.”
The pet store wasn’t far enough away. He was pulling beside her car well before she was ready to get out of his jeep.
Hunter didn’t turn off his engine, but he unclicked his seat belt to turn and face her. He brushed some hair off her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. “Thanks for going with me.”
She flushed and looked down, wishing time would slow so she could memorize the passage of his fingers along her jaw. They’d grappled in a field for hours, but this tiny stroke of his hand on her face felt like the most intimate thing she’d ever done.
The thought made her freeze.
Would he kiss her now? Would that change everything, turn this ... this courtship into a chase? She’d always hated how guys measured goals with a girl like bases in baseball. First base, second base—but when you hit a home run, you go back to the dugout and wait for your next chance. She liked this, when there was no game, no ball in play.
“I’ve kept you out too late,” he murmured, and she could tell he’d moved closer. His breath brushed her temple.
Her lips parted. She wondered what his mouth would feel like, what he would taste like.
She wondered if she’d let it get that far. Her hands were sweating again.
Keep me close so you can hurt me.
Hunter stroked her hair back again. She leaned in to his touch.
“Do you have your keys?” he said.
Her keys? She nodded.
His thumb brushed along her cheekbone, but he didn’t move closer. His voice was rich and warm and gentle. “It’s late.”
She nodded again, feeling her heartbeat, her breathing. She held still, her face against his palm. He didn’t move.
Then she figured it out.
Do you have your keys? It’s late.
She drew back, unable to look at him now. She thrust her hand into her purse, praying the keys would find her shaking fingers. “Thanks for dinner, Hunter.”
“Hey. Easy.” He caught her wrist and pulled her back. This time when his fingers found her chin, they lifted her face so she could meet his eyes. “Look at me.”
What was this going to be, some ease-his-conscience letdown?
“Becca,” he said. She loved the sound of her name on his lips—and she hated herself for it.
His eyes were wide. She looked right back at him and willed her voice to be steady and quiet. “What?”
He moved closer, until a breath would bring their lips together. “You deserve better than a first kiss in a deserted parking lot.”
She couldn’t breathe. She almost kissed him anyway.
But then he was shifting away, making sure she found her keys, waiting to be sure her car started and she got out of the lot safely.
She wasn’t sure how she drove. Maybe the car propelled itself, fueled by her euphoria. This was how it could be: no games, just simple chivalry and kindness. Gentle strength, the way a man should come to a woman.
Giddiness got her home. She hadn’t forgotten Chris and his brothers, but their troubles had drifted to some distant part of her brain.
But they snapped to the forefront when she pulled into her driveway.
There on the door, shining in the beams of her headlights, was a shiny brand-new pentagram.
CHAPTER 22
