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“You’re not old.” I shove his shoulder when he glances at me. “You’re distinguished.”
“Now you’re just bein’ kind. Leroy asked me if I needed a damn walker tonight.”
“Why did he ask that?” I laugh.
“Because I overdid it with the wood today and almost put my back out.”
I can imagine him putting his back out for other reasons, but I keep my mouth closed. “Well, that’s rude. You look pretty good from where I’m sitting.”
Gray eyes meet mine, and I’m lost in a world of just him and me. “So do you.”
In my fantasy, he isn’t my best friend’s dad. We’re just two lonely people who are attracted to one another. Age doesn’t matter, either. And I’ve always maintained that. It’s not like Decker goes around looking for younger women; he’s not like that. When women swarm around him when he comes into the café, he takes it all in his stride. Smiling and laughing with women of all ages, shapes, and sizes. He’s Mr. Smooth.
In fact… “I’ve never kissed a man with a beard before.”
The words are out before I can stop them.
He takes the glass out of my hand. “No more of this.”
“Hey!”
Okay, I admit, maybe that second shot went straight to my head. They sure as shit make moonshine like their lives depend on it down here.
“It’s for your own good, trust me.”
The thing is, I do trust him.
When I reach for him, he freezes as my hand lands on his bicep. “Decker?”
His eyes flick up to mine. “One more compliment and I might just forget any rules we put in place.”
“Well,” I hum. “You know what they say about rules and them being broken?”
We’re edging closer to one another, and when his hands cup my face, I’m ready.
I feel his lips on my forehead. “You’re an incredibly beautiful woman, Pearl, but you’re too young for me.”
“That isn’t true,” I whisper. “And besides… nobody has to know.”
Those four words do something to him. I practically hear the growl in his chest.
Nobody has to know.
He presses his forehead against mine. “What are you doing to me?”
“I’ve not been able to stop thinking about you since that incident in my kitchen when I asked you if you felt this thing between us, too.”
“And you replied that you had very bad thoughts. Yes, I remember.” He tilts my chin up, so I’m forced to look at him. “You were also going to ask me somethin’, and we got interrupted. What was it?”
The thing is: I know what I want, and I want him.
“I was going to ask what if we just kept it our dirty little secret, then nobody gets hurt. We’re consenting adults. We shouldn’t be ashamed.”
“I’m not ashamed,” he says softly. “But I’m also findin’ it hard to stay away from you.”
I mean every word when I blurt, “So don’t.”
His eyes dip to my lips for a fraction of a second. Before I know what’s happening, they meet mine with a promise that makes my pussy throb. His beard is surprisingly soft, and his mouth? Oh, kill me now, his mouth is divine.
