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Someone rings the bell on their bike, circling around us. It’s like the ring-a-ling sound reminds us we’re in public, and he steps back the same moment I let my hand fall.
“Are you lying to me?” I ask.
His expression flares, his jaw tightening. “I will never lie to you. I didn’t want her, not even a little bit. In fact, I was a little repulsed by how she threw herself at me. I know that makes me sound like an old fashioned prick, but I think a man should own his woman, a woman should own her man. There’s nothing casual about this hunger I feel for you.”
Relief overwhelms me, prompted by that weird enticing feeling, the one that tells me Bennet and I are going to have a family, a future, a life worth living.
“I feel the same,” I whisper.
He laughs roughly. “So here we are. We’re the perfect couple, except for the fact that being together would blow up our lives.”
“That’s quite the way to phrase it,” I murmur.
He shrugs and turns toward the path, nodding at me to follow. I get the sense he doesn’t want to stay where we are in case he loses control and takes hold of me again.
My skin tingles from his touch, phantom memories of the way his fingers claimed my flesh, the way he gripped me hard like he never wanted to let go.
“So what are we going to do?” I ask. “Do you want to forget about it?”
He glances at me sharply, looking like he’s ready to commit murder for a second. Like he wants to kill the very idea that we could forget about this. Us.
“Do you think you’re capable of that?” he growls. “Because I know I’m not.”
“What other choice is there?” I whisper.
“What do you want to do, Lorelei?”
I almost blurt it all out right here, telling him I want a family and love and marriage. And that, even if I know getting all those things means I have to overcome one of the hardest obstacles of my life, I’ll do it for him. I’d do anything for him.
“I want you not to be my dad’s best friend,” I say, laughing hollowly.
He smirks. “Yeah, that would make things easier, wouldn’t it? But we can’t unring that bell. Even if I pretended to fall out with Rick, there’s no way to erase the shit we went through together. There’s no way to erase all the times he saved my ass.”
“And you saved his,” I say passionately. “Dad’s told a few stories over the years. He told me about the time he was wounded and you had to carry him back to base.”
Bennet nods gruffly. “Yeah, that’s true. But don’t say it like I’m some kind of hero. A man does his duty, no matter what. That’s just the way it is. And that’s just it, Lorelei, fuck. That’s it right there.”
He’s stopped again, staring at me.
“What is?” I ask.
“I have a duty to Rick to leave you the hell alone. Men don’t go after their best friend’s daughters. And yet I know I can’t. You’re too sexy and beautiful and funny and interesting and… Dammit, Rory, you get me worked up just being near you.”
“Rory.” My cheeks glow pleasantly. “That’s the first time you’ve called me that.”
“Do you like it?” he asks.
“Yeah, I do. I really do.”
“Okay then.” He smirks. “Rory it is.”
“Maybe we could…”
I trail off, realizing what I’m about to do.
What if he says no?
Bennet steps forward, almost brushing his body against mine again. He stops just short, chest heaving, emanating wave upon wave of carnal heat.
“Don’t get shy with me now.”
I urge myself to lean forward and kiss him, to stand on my tiptoes and press my lips against his and forget about duty and dad and all the rest of it.
Pushing down my shyness, I say, “What if we went out together? Maybe after spending a couple of hours together we might realize there’s nothing here.”
My belly twists at my words because we both know there’s something here. There’s everything here. But surely we at least have to try.
Or maybe this is just an excuse, a way to get a date with the man of my dreams.
Bennet laughs, eyes flickering with so much emotion and lust it’s difficult to handle. “Rory, did you just ask me out on a date?”
More nerves swirl, trying to slither up my body, clamp tightly around my throat, silencing me. But my body is too hot and ready for him, for us, for me to let it rule me.
“Yes, I think I just did.”
“But do you really think we can get this out of our system?” he says skeptically.
No, I don’t. And he doesn’t either. I can tell by the possessive way he’s looking at me.
“I think we have to try,” I whisper.
