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As I passed the twins’ bedroom, I paused and pushed the slightly ajar door open. They were sitting on their beds facing each other, talking in low tones that stopped as soon as they realized I was standing in the doorway. We had an extra bedroom and I was sure that one of them would move into it when they hit puberty, but for now they didn’t want to be apart. I guessed it was a twin thing.
“I’m leaving,” I told them with a small smile, letting them know that for the most part they were forgiven. “I love you both.”
“Love you, too,” Luca said, his eyes looking red and a little puffy. My heart clenched at the signs that my tough-as-nails little brother had been crying. He might be a rotten little brat at times, but he had a really tender heart that could get broken all too easily. It was him that I worried about the most when it came to him finding a girlfriend later on. It was probably going to be him that I was going to end up in jail over because I’d beaten the first girl to break his heart into a coma.
“Love you, Lucy,” Lyric called from his bed where he was sitting Indian-style with one of his pillows hugged to his chest. “Be careful.”
I blew them both kisses and then closed the door to give them their privacy before walking downstairs. Halfway down, I realized that my parents were standing in the hall talking to Harris. At my descent, they all looked up, three sets of eyes watching me closely.
But I only had eyes for one of them.
Harris was dressed as he normally was, in jeans that looked like they were made just for him and a white dress shirt half unbuttoned over a simple black T-shirt that I knew hid a body that was pure perfection. His short hair was styled with just a little bit of product in it and he was flashing me those dimples in a way that never failed to make my heart go crazy. I tried to pull my eyes away, honestly I did, but they seemed to have developed a will of their own, eating up the sight of the guy who had declared himself my boyfriend just the night before.
“You look beautiful, Lucy.”
I felt my cheeks fill with warmth, a mixture of a shy blush and pure delight that he liked what I was wearing tonight.
My dad shifted beside Harris, completely draining away the pink from my cheeks as I focused on the behemoth of a man standing between my boyfriend, whom I hadn’t yet told him about, and my mom. I bit my lip, feeling guilty that I hadn’t told him about Harris and me. I’d only ever kept one other thing from him—something I’d never told another living soul about—so keeping this from him felt so damn wrong.
But I wasn’t going to tell him just yet. Not for a little longer. I wanted time to enjoy where things were going with Harris before my dad put him in a full body cast or worse—a casket.
“Are you going to First Bass after dinner or coming home?” my dad asked as he stepped forward to hug me when I reached the last step.
“First Bass for a little while,” I told him and gave him a hard squeeze. “Marcus is going to pick up Kin and meet us there, so you don’t have to worry about me being without him.” I felt Dad’s lips in my hair and savored having my father’s unconditional love for a moment longer before pulling away.
“Okay, then. Have fun, baby girl.” He turned to shake Harris’s hand while I hugged my mom.
I kissed her cheek and then spoke into her ear so that the other two didn’t hear me. “Check on Luca in a few minutes. He’s a little upset with himself.”
Mom nodded her head, her chocolate-brown eyes full of a mother’s concern. “Have fun, baby. I love you.”
Dad handed over my jacket and opened the door for us. When Harris and I had first started having our weekly dinner date together, my parents hadn’t even blinked when I asked them if the two of us could have some privacy during that time. Letting me go out to an actual restaurant with him, alone for two hours or so… Yeah, that was how much my parents trusted Harris Cutter. For my dad especially, that was a big deal.
He knew that Harris would protect me, that I was safe with him.
That only made my guilt at not telling Dad about Harris and me all the harder to swallow as Harris put his hand on the small of my back and walked me out to his car parked in the driveway. In that moment, I decided that I was going to tell him soon. Like, on my birthday. Yeah, that seemed like the perfect idea. He couldn’t say no to me on my birthday. Never had been able to before, anyway.
Opening the passenger door, Harris waited for me to take my place inside his Maserati before shutting the door and
moving around the car to climb in behind the wheel. The crazy-fast, crazy-expensive car had been a present from his dad and stepmom when he’d graduated from high school, so it was several years old. Yet it still had that hint of new car smell. Harris rarely drove this car, usually opting for the SUV, that he’d bought himself, to take Trinity places.
He knew I loved riding in the Maserati, though, and always picked me up in it for our dinners together. Of course, neither one of us was brave enough to actually let me drive it. Jesse Thornton would blow ten gaskets if he saw me behind the wheel of a car that went this fast.
As soon as Harris was behind the wheel, I expected him to start the car, turn on the radio and get us as far away from my house as quickly as possible. Instead, he just sat there, his body turned toward me slightly, and those mesmerizing aquamarine eyes were devouring me from head to toe.
Having his eyes on me like that was something I wasn’t used to yet. I thought his gaze was hungry, or maybe that was just me, because my eyes were taking everything about him in and making me ache in places that were going to get me in a hell of a lot of trouble if I wasn’t careful. Last night I’d told him I wasn’t ready for sex yet. That was true, but I knew that he could change my mind all too easily if I wasn’t careful.
Lifting one large hand, Harris pushed a few long curls back from my face. “You are so fucking beautiful, Lucy. All I can think about right now is tasting those ripe lips. I’m not going to, though. Not yet. We’ll never make it to dinner if I start kissing you now.” His thumb caressed over my cheek, lingering at the corner of my mouth. “So beautiful,” he murmured again.
I couldn’t help the shiver or the gooseflesh that popped up over my entire body that his touch, combined with the look in his amazing eyes, caused. My lips began to tingle, aching for a kiss just as badly as he was. Clenching my thighs together in hopes of assuaging the same tingle in my most intimate place, I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch.
“Fuck,” he growled and pulled away. I opened my eyes to find him gripping the steering wheel, his long body facing the front and his head leaning back against the seat with his eyes closed. “I haven’t even kissed you and I’m ready to explode. No one has ever done this to me, Lu. No one but you.”
Heart racing, my teeth sank into my bottom lip. I wanted to beg him to take me to his apartment. I didn’t need food if I could spend a few hours completely alone with this yummy guy. But I knew I wasn’t ready for things to go that far. I wasn’t going to give it up to him on our first real date.
Sucking in a deep breath and opening his eyes, Harris finally reached for the gearshift and backed out of the driveway. Out on the street, he shifted gears and reached for my hand, being careful since it was the injured one. Jaw clenched, he drove in silence for almost ten minutes before blowing out a frustrated breath. “Sorry, baby.”
A small grin teased at my lips. “Don’t call me baby.”
