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“The man who is falling in love with you?” I pressed.
Rhea nodded.
“Why does that surprise you?”
“I was very abrasive in the beginning,” she noted.
“Understandably so. I can’t say I would have been much different toward someone who was looking to acquire part of Westwood’s, especially if I’d been through what you had just been through,” I reasoned.
Rhea licked her lips, forcing my eyes to drop to them. I’d done my best to ignore having her naked body against me for this long, but now that we were having this discussion, and she was smiling and licking her lips, I wasn’t quite sure how much longer I’d be able to hold myself back.
“Yeah, but you really didn’t know any of that until today,” she pointed out.
Half of my mouth quirked up. “I know. But I got a lot of sass and stubbornness from the start. And until you gave it to me, I hadn’t realized just how much I liked it. Plus, I like the way you look in your pants when we go running.”
Rhea rolled her eyes at me. “I’m not sure that’s a good reason to want to pursue someone.”
“Are you joking? That’s the best reason. Physical attraction is a big deal,” I noted.
She lifted a curious brow. “Tell me more.”
Maybe it was better to show her. In a move I don’t think she was expecting, I flipped Rhea to her back and brought my body over hers. I brushed my lips against hers for just a moment before I pulled back and said, “I’ll never forget the sight of you in your dress on your birthday. I don’t know how I remained in control when I saw your bare legs on display or the way your hips moved to the music. God, you were breathtaking.”
“And drunk,” she reminded me.
“Maybe. But if I’m honest, even though I was already feeling a very strong attraction to that point, it was that night when you really started to pull me in,” I revealed.
I kissed her lips, Rhea’s legs immediately circling my waist and wrapping around my back. When I shifted my mouth to her jaw and began kissing her there, she said, “I don’t think there was a single moment for me.”
Confused by her statement, I stopped kissing her and pulled my head back. “What?”
She licked her lips again, her eyes sparkling. “Physically, I noticed you immediately. Obviously, you’re unbelievably good looking. It’s almost annoying.”
I let out a laugh. “Wow. Thanks.”
“Well, I told myself it was annoying, but even my friends could see right through me,” she shared. “Beyond that, though, everything else was a gradual build. The runs, the conversations, the persistence… it all led me to this place. Every time you proved me wrong, I found you harder and harder to resist. And I kept trying to find reasons why I couldn’t or shouldn’t allow myself to fall for you. I was already failing miserably, and I think last night solidified things for me.”
One of my hands was resting just beneath her collarbone. My fingers stroked tenderly over the soft skin there as something constricted in my chest. Through the pain in my throat, I asked, “What are you trying to tell me, babe?”
Her eyes continued to roam over my face as she rasped, “I think I’m falling in love with you, Wyatt.”
Contentment, surprise, and desire moved through me.
I knew there was an attraction on her end, but I didn’t expect this. I didn’t know if I could ever express with words how much it meant to hear her say that, but I knew I needed her to know how it made me feel. I needed to do something about the way hearing those words made me feel.
So, even though there was probably still a lot for us to discuss, we were going to have to put the conversations off for the time being.
Unable to wait another minute, I buried my face in her neck and began kissing the skin there. One of Rhea’s hands was instantly in my hair, the other running along the skin on my back.
I started to shift my body slightly, my mouth moving from her neck to her collarbone and down toward her breasts. My hands were cupping them on either side of my face as I inhaled the scent of her.
I loved it.
I loved the way she smelled.
It wasn’t particularly strong or overpowering. Just the light, misty scent of vanilla.
Delicious enough to eat.
