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“Answer the question, Row.”
“I’ve been fixin’ my hair like this for years,” she tells me. “You’d chase me and pull on them, then tease me and say I looked like Little Red Riding Hood.”
I chuckle at the memory and shrug. “Well, your hair does have a red tint in the sun.”
“And you’d say how you were the Big Bad Wolf, and that if you caught me, you were going to eat me,” she adds, unamused.
I burst out laughing again. “I was a little shit.”
“So I’d run, and of course, you were always faster than me,” she deadpans, tilting her head. “Now I remember why I hated you so much.”
My mouth tips into a grin. She’s trying so hard to be upset with me, crossing her arms and putting space between us. After a decade, I finally kissed her again and am not wasting another opportunity.
“That was just foreplay,” I taunt, leaning closer. “All these years of pent-up sexual frustration…stop fightin’ it, Row.”
“And what were all the one-nighters and hookups? Practice?”
I arch a brow. “Were you jealous?”
She gives me her famous eye roll. “No.”
I tilt her chin up until our gazes meet. “Let me kiss you again.”
“You gonna ask every time?” I can tell she’s holding back a smile.
“You gonna stop being stubborn?” I counter, plucking her bottom lip from her teeth. “Because I have plans for this sassy mouth.”
“Is that how you win all the girls over? Skip over the dating and get-to-know-yous and go straight for the panty-dropping one-liners?”
“I know everything about you, Rowan. At this rate, we’ve been datin’ for years because there isn’t anything I don’t already know or haven’t observed.”
She scoffs. “You don’t know everything.”
I close the gap between us until my mouth hovers over hers. “Try me,” I challenge. “I bet if I slid my hand between your legs, you’d be wet. Am I right?”
She swallows. “Wrong.”
I smirk. “And I bet if I rubbed my thumb over your nipple, it’d be hard.”
“It’s chilly in here.”
“That right? So I have no effect on you? Is that what you’re sayin’?”
Rowan shrugs, unfazed.
“You’re bruising my heart here, woman. Throw me a bone or something,” I plead. “I won’t kiss you again until I know where your head’s at.”
I refuse to screw this moment up by thinking with my dick. As much as I want her, I won’t go into this one-sided. She’ll have to tell me she wants me just as much, or she’ll need to stop this before it can even start.
“Alright,” she says, sitting straighter. “Can I show you?”
I wave my hand out, motioning for her to proceed.
Rowan grabs my wrist and places my palm against her chest. “You feel that?” she asks. I close my eyes and feel her heart rapidly pounding.
“Yes,” I tell her.
“That’s you,” she says softly. “Something changed between us, and now when you’re near, my body reacts to your presence.” She exhales sharply. “Even more with your touch.”
“What changed?” I open my eyes and ask, sliding my hand up to her face.
“I started seeing you.” Rowan looks up at me, her expression soft and vulnerable. “You still annoy the shit outta me, but now I see a man I want to spend more time with than away from.”
Chuckling, I brush my thumb over her flushed cheek. “Took you long enough to get here.” I cover her mouth with mine, sliding my tongue between her lips, and give in to the desire I’ve held back for so long.
We battle with our bodies, touching, sucking, pushing, pulling. I can’t get enough of the woman I’ve wanted since I was a teen, and it feels too good to be true.
“What does this mean for us, Row?” I ask, leaning my forehead against hers. “The ball’s in your court.”
I watch as she licks her lips and blows out a shallow breath. “I think it’d be best if we just take it slow and see where things go before announcing anything.”
“You’re afraid of what Riley will do?” I cock a brow.
“Well, yes,” she admits, then smirks. “Plus, sneaking around could be kinda fun. Gives us a chance to explore our feelings before the whole town’s in our business. Because they will be.”
She’s right. The moment the news is out, everyone will have an opinion about it. “Alright, I’m good with that.”
Rowan smiles, then nervously chews on her bottom lip. “Now what?”
“Now I walk out of here with blue balls, and we try this secret dating thing until we’re ready to tell people, which means we have to keep up the act of only being friends in public.”
“Does that mean you’ll be dating other people in the meantime?” she asks. “You know…to keep up appearances.”
“Hell no and neither will you. I’m not screwing up the best thing to ever happen to me.”
Rowan’s who I’ve always wanted anyway, and I’ll do everything I can to prove that to her.
