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He chuckles. “No. Leave it, you look adorably messy.”
My cheeks heat from his teasing. “Rowan, come on. Help me.”
He leans over the table and cups my chin to wipe my mouth with his thumb. “There.” Before he pulls away, though, I lick his thumb. He looks surprised.
To be honest, so was I. But I explained, “I’m not wasting that chocolate custard.”
He laughs again. “Understandable.”
We finish dessert and polish off the bottle, as the boat pulls into the dock again. It’s been such a fun night, I don’t want it to end. “I guess it’s back to the real world, huh?”
“Sadly, yes. Work in the morning.”
“Boo, jobs.”
Rowan smiles, and the boat anchors next to the dock. “But we love our jobs.”
“I know. But it was nice to pretend we weren’t grown-ups for a little while. Reliving old memories with you is fun.”
He stands and takes my hand to help me to my feet, but I wobble a bit. “You okay?”
“I’m fine. The Syrah hits differently from the Riesling.” Rowan walks me toward the boarding ramp, still holding onto me.He hasn’t released my hand. Why hasn’t he released my hand yet?
“I um…let’s be careful getting off, okay?”
I giggle. “I’ll be fine getting off.”
Rowan gulps, but I’m not sure why. “Bad choice of words. Uh, come on.” He crosses the short boarding ramp ahead of me and waits, hand out for me.
I roll my eyes. “I’m fine, Rowan. You worry too much.” As I step to him, though, my heel hooks on something, and I stumble. Rowan catches me in his firm arms. He stares into my eyes, and I’m swimming in his. My heart stumbles too. He comes close enough for me to breathe his breath, and I meet him halfway.
When our lips brush against each other, I can’t stop a faint moan from escaping my body. He pulls back, uncertainty and lust in his eyes. I pull him back to my mouth, kissing him harder. He takes control from there and holds me to him. The unmistakable low down shiver sends sparks through my body. I’m kissing Rowan Cargill, and nothing has ever felt like this.
7
Rowan
I should just text her.
It had been a few days since our boat trip, and neither of us had reached out since that fateful night. But I’d seen her around the club, taking pictures again. So, of course, I’d had dinner in my office every night since then. In all fairness to me, I had a lot of work to get done. I could not afford the distraction of a chitchat. My work was too important to be bifurcated between conversation and paperwork—
Who am I kidding? I’ve been dodging her.
The night we kissed, I hadn’t known what to say as I walked her to her car. Neither had she—the whole walk there was silent. Then she awkwardly hugged me and left without another word. I wasn’t sure if we were both stunned, or if she hates me now.
Had I taken advantage? I didn’t think so. Sure, we were both a little tipsy and vulnerable…if she hadn’t met me in the middle, I would have been worried about it. But Autumn had done more than kiss me back—she’d hooked her hand around my neck and stayed with me. And the little moan she let out after…
If I think about it too much,everythingbecomes hard.
I dig my head into the headrest of my office chair and sigh, staring at the ceiling. Try to think about anything but her. Still, I can’t get her out of my mind.
I have to talk to her. That’s all there is to it. No more delaying the inevitable—no matter what happens, I can’t take the suspense any longer, and I can’t let my work suffer from the confusion anymore. I text her to ask her out to dinner, and to my surprise, she responds right away. Hopefully, she was thinking about me too.
The day drags on until we go. We are friends. We’ve always been friends. One tipsy kiss isn’t going to change that.
Technically, it was two tipsy kisses.
I grumble at myself in the middle of a meeting with Sawyer, and he frowns. “Did you have something to add?”
