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He snorted into his beer. “They did not.”
I shot him a wink, feeling all kinds of sassy. “Okay, no, they didn’t. But they did throw them all away. I promise I’m not making that up. There wasn’t so much as a deck of cards in the house while we were living there.”
A waitress wearing one of the legendary Tap Room shirts came by and asked if I wanted a refill.
“She’ll take one,” Ford answered just as I said, “I probably shouldn’t.”
My gaze shot to his, my eyebrows climbing high on my forehead.
“The night’s still young,” he reasoned. “And besides, how often do you get to let your hair down like this?”
His logic was tempting, I had to admit that. But I was starting to question my judgement. “I don’t think so. In fact, I should probably head home.” I pushed out of the chair and reached for my purse, but before I could grab it, Ford’s hand came down on mine. When I looked at him, I was met with an intensity I’d never seen from him before.
“You know, if you’d been out with me tonight, I wouldn’t have let you leave before ten o’clock and end up at some bar all alone. I would have made sure you had such a good time, you didn’t want the night to end.”
My chest stuttered on a surprised inhale.
“I would have made sure you knew there wasn’t a single doubt whether or not I would kiss you at the end of the night.”
“Ford—”
“And I most fucking definitely would have made damn sure there was oomph. By the time the night was over, the wordnicewouldn’t have been in your vocabulary.”
My skin tingled and grew tight. Arousal flooded my core. My breasts felt heavy as my breathing grew more erratic. “What are you doing, Ford?” I barely managed to ask, my voice sounding hoarse and throaty.
A sound akin to a growl rolled up from his chest. “Something I should have done a long fucking time ago.”
And on that declaration, his lips crashed against mine.
14
FORD
When she stood from that table, ready to leave, something inside me snapped. I had no right kissing her or saying all those things, but I couldn’t stop myself. Hell, I hadn’t wanted to. The only thing I could think about was keeping her from walking out that door. My gut was screaming that it was probably the only shot I’d get, and I couldn’t let it slip through my fingers.
We’d been building this playful bantering tension all those years ago when I’d slammed on the brakes, and all the reasons I’d shut it down then were still very much a factor today, butdamn it. I was sick and fucking tired of wanting her from a distance. I couldn’t take sitting back and watching her laugh or smile at someone else. I couldn’t stand the idea of her going out with another man. She was ready to put herself back out there, and one of these days, a guy was going to come along and see all she was worth and pull out all the stops to make her his. It was inevitable.
But maybe by the time that happened, I could work her out of my system. I couldn’t give her forever, but I could sure as hell give her right now, and hopefully, that would be enough.
She didn’t shy away from the kiss or freeze in surprise. The moment my lips molded to hers, she was in the game. Her teeth closed over my bottom lip, the delicious sting making my dick swell. When her tongue darted inside my mouth, I met her eagerly, stroke for stroke, our tongues dueling for dominance. I’d let her have a taste of power, but inevitably, I would be the one in control.
I pinned her against me with one arm while I twisted her long locks around my other fist and pulled hard enough to make her scalp sting and force her head back slightly, letting her know who was running the show.
She let out a needy moan, her eyelids drooping with desire.
That look only drove me crazier. My cock was so hard it felt like it was trying to burst through my pants to get to her. “Want to get out of here?”
“Fuck yes,” she hissed.
That was all I needed to hear. I released her only to snatch her hand and drag her through the crowd toward the exit. It felt like it took an eternity to get from one side of the bar to the other, but the moment I shoved through the bar’s door and stepped into the chilly mountain air, something primal roared with pleasure inside of me.
“My place or yours?” I asked, looking over my shoulder as Hardin skipped in her heels to keep up. Christ, I wanted to fuck her in those shoes.
“Too long,” she said, her voice husky with want. “My car’s in the very back of the lot.”
I growled as my cock throbbed in time with my frantic heartbeat. I moved fast, rounding the building toward the back of the parking lot. “Where?” I gritted as I scanned the other cars.
She responded by pulling her keys from the tiny purse on her wrist and beeping the locks on a midsized SUV. It wasn’t ideal, but it was a whole hell of a lot better than having to wait forty-five minutes to get back to Grapevine, in which time, Hardin could change her mind.
