Kissin' Tell (Rough Riders #13)(33)

“How else am I supposed to take it?” he demanded.


“As constructive criticism! As a suggestion that this is not working. When you have dates with other women, what do you do?”


He tried to remember his last date. An actual date. Where he picked the woman up, took her to supper or to a movie. He couldn’t remember.


It’d been a long time. A damn long time.


That’s when Tell realized all his encounters with women in recent years had been hookups. Regardless if he met the chick in a bar, or at a rodeo, or at the poker table. He’d flirt. She’d flirt back. Then they’d be naked, f*cking the night away. In the morning, they’d go their separate ways.


He didn’t want that with Georgia. He wanted something…real. “Honestly, I don’t even remember my last damn date, so maybe that’s why I’m a little rusty. Why don’t you tell me about your dates?”


That strong chin of hers came up. “Most guys at least try to get me in the sack on the first date.”


Tell felt the strangest surge of jealousy. “And because I haven’t tried to nail you the first week we’ve been together, there’s something wrong with me?”


“Oh, there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re sexy, you’ve got an incredible body and I’ve no doubt you know exactly how to use it. You act like you want me. But there’s no follow-through, just the constant tease. So can you understand why I’d be suspicious that this is a game? Since you couldn’t have me ten years ago when you wanted me, but I want you now, you’re going to lead me on and then change your mind?”


His mouth opened to deny it, but part of him feared she was right. If any other woman had been so hot to get naked and wild with him, he would’ve jumped her the first night. But he’d held back with her. Not just one night, but every time they’d been together.


Shit. Maybe he was turning this into a game. Despite his mortification, he looked at her. “What do you want from me?”


“I can tell you what I don’t want from you. I don’t want to neck with you in your pickup at the local make-out spot and get all hot and bothered. I don’t want to watch you racing around half-naked on a basketball court and get all hot and bothered. I don’t want to sit on your lap after your dart game and get all hot and bothered. I want more because we’re not high school kids anymore, Tell. There’s no reason for us to be worried we’re taking it too far, too fast. My biggest worry is you see me as that purity-ring-wearing virgin and you won’t take it far enough.”


Silence.


Unable to come up with a clever response, he just said, “I think it’s best if I take you home.”


“That’s it? We’re not talking about this?”


“You’ve got my tongue so tied up in knots that I’ll just say the wrong damn thing.” He sighed. “Look, it’s obvious I’m an idiot when it comes to this stuff, all right? Can we just go?”


After he helped her into his rig, she said, “Such a gentleman.”


“That’s who I am, Georgia. And for some reason, you bring out those gentlemanly qualities far more frequently than any woman I’ve met.”


She touched his face and he felt as if he’d been zapped by a cattle prod. “Know what’s funny?”


“What?”


“Your gentlemanly side brings out my inner whore.”


Tell laughed softly, appreciating her attempt to lighten the mood. “That right?”


“Yes. So no wonder we’re at cross-purposes.”


The ride back to her place was mighty quiet, not that he’d expected Georgia to blather on. So her next question surprised him.


“Do you remember when you took me home that one time senior year?”


Like he could ever forget. Seeing her crying outside the gym, looking so lost and alone. He’d acted on instinct, trying to soothe her, trying to get her to talk to him. It’d shocked him that she had talked about bad choices and no choices. Then she’d asked him for a ride home and climbed in his dirty, piece-of-shit pickup. She’d left the window open and literally let her hair down, allowing all that black silk to flutter in the breeze. Georgia had been so preoccupied that she hadn’t noticed him staring at her. She hadn’t noticed that he’d almost wrecked his damn truck because he’d been staring at her.


“Do you know what I wanted more than anything that afternoon? To ask you to keep driving. To drive until we were a long way from Sundance.”


“I would’ve said yes. I would’ve taken you anywhere you wanted to go.” He’d ended up on the receiving end of Deck’s fists for that anyway. Getting to spend more time with Georgia would’ve made those bruises a little less painful to bear.


Tell pulled up in front of her house. She hadn’t left the light on, so he walked her to the front door.


She faced him. “Tell, I—”


“I don’t expect you to lie and say you had a great time tonight.”


“I didn’t intend to. I want to know where we go from here.”