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“I leave for less than a couple of hours and you’re already trying to get close to her?” I seethe, fist tightening in his shirt. Tom’s just as tall and fit as I am from all the manual labor required in his job, but I’m far from intimidated by him. Hell, I think I could take down a whole army with my bare hands in Dahlia’s name. “She ismine!”
“Jesus, dude, really—”
“Give me one fucking reason I shouldn’t break your damn nose—”
“Oh my god, Dylan!” Dahlia’s shout of my name snags my attention, and I glance away from Tom to find her wide-eyed with her hands on her hips, staring at me. “The pipe was leaking! I needed help fixing it. That’s all. I promise.”
I consider her words, knowing instinctively that she’s not lying. I trust her, which is a strange as hell feeling because I don’t make a habit of truly trusting anyone but myself. I like it, though, the warmth of my utter infatuation with her that seems to glow in my chest.
“You can look for yourself,” Tom says in my grip, flailing a little as he points to where they were just lying.
I don’t like how close they were, but I was the one who told Dahlia she should learn how to do this for herself, wasn’t I? I’m not mad at her, no, I’m pissed that Tom’s fucking knee was against hers, that he was breathing her air. I don’t give a shit if it seems irrational, that’s the effect she has on me.
“You come that close to her again—ever again—and I swear to God you’ll regret it,” I tell him darkly before letting him go. Tom shakes himself out a little, shaking his head at me.
“I’m going to go,” he says simply, being smart and not even glancing at Dahlia’s way, even when she lets out a relieved sigh and steps closer to my side. I wrap my arm around her shoulder, tucking her close. “I’ll be back to finish up the roof tomorrow, give you some time to…cool down.”
With that, Tom jogs out, and I pay no attention to the sounds of him collecting his things outside. That feral, protective instinct is still running through me, making me hold Dahlia tightly to me.
She smooths her palms over my chest and tilts her head back to look up at me.
“You didn’t need to do that,” she starts, and when I open my mouth to insist that I definitely fucking did, she smiles at me, rendering me speechless. Damn, this girl is like some sort of magical creature with the spell she’s cast on me. “But…I kind of liked it.”
I blink at her. “You liked it?”
“Yeah, the whole ‘She’s mine and I’ll protect her no matter what’thing.” She giggles. “It was kind of hot. And it feels nice to know you’re all possessive. You really are a big grizzly bear, aren’t you?”
A rush of something unfamiliar floods me, warm and tingling and making its way straight to my heart. “I’m whatever you want me to be.”
Dahlia’s grin rivals the damn stars for how much she shines. “And if I want you to be mine? Even if my brother will lose his shit if he finds out?”
Fuck Harry and whatever he thinks. It won’t be pretty when we have to explain this to him—the fact that I’m head over fucking heels for his sister who’s near enough twenty years younger than me—but I don’t care.
“Then I’m yours,” I tell her honestly, kissing her fiercely.
8
DAHLIA
“Where are we going?” I ask Dylan as we climb into his car to head into town. After we stopped our work on the house for the day, he told me to get changed into something nice and be ready to leave at seven, but he didn’t tell me why.
“You deserve to be taken on a proper date,” he says gruffly, like he’s a little uncomfortable at the thought of willingly going out in public. I’ve noticed how much he values his space away from everyone, except me apparently. It gives me a rush of pride knowing I’m special to him in that way.
I melt a little at his words. “A date?” I repeat, bouncing a little in my seat, my hand engulfed in his larger one. He drives with one hand on the wheel so he doesn’t have to let go of me. “Where?”
“You said you were hungry and you need a break from that house. You haven’t had time to explore the town properly so…”
“You’re taking me out for dinner?” I ask eagerly. I am starving. We spent all day clearing the kitchen and knocking the wall down between there and the living room to open up the space, so when the kitchen parts are delivered in a few days, there’ll actually be space for it all to go in. We worked over lunch, and since I hardly have the space or place to put groceries away, it means I haven’t eaten anything since the croissant Dylan brought with our coffees this morning.
“Not letting my girl go hungry.”
The way he saysmy girlmakes my heart so summersaults. I’ve never been important enough to anyone before to have them claim me, and I squeeze his hand, grinning like a mad woman.
It shouldn’t be possible to fall so hard and so fast for a man I’ve only gotten to know over the last week. But then again, Dylan has never been a stranger to me. It’s like my heart knows his, like I’ve been waiting for him all this time.
“Have you been here often?” I ask as he slows the car to a stop outside the only restaurant in town.
“Rarely,” Dylan says. “I…stick to my own company. Until now. Until you.”
