Roots and Wings (City Limits #1)(53)

“This looks good.”

“You like that?”

“I bet it feels good, too.”

Then she kissed me. Her lips were warm and soft and welcoming, and her hand lingered on my neck. Everything about the way she kissed me made me want her to do it again and again.

The way she’d sweep my lip with her tongue. The way she tipped her head to kiss me deeper. The way she pressed her chest into me to get closer. And the way her quiet little sounds, which played on repeat whenever we were apart, always sounded fresh in my ears.

“Can you peel potatoes?” she asked when the kiss eventually faded.

“I think I can manage,” I assured her. Even though I didn’t want it to end, I wanted to get dinner over with. The sooner, the better.

She put me to work, setting three large potatoes in front of me inside the small kitchen. I peeled them as she made tartar sauce and prepared the fish.

I enjoyed working with her. Actually, it wasn’t what we were doing at all. It was that we were doing it together.

“I know it’s not good for you, but it tastes so good this way,” she told me later as she dunked the metal basket into the fryer outside.

We filled up on potatoes, fish that we’d caught ourselves, and dined beside the river as the light slipped away. Earlier, she’d said something about having another fire, and I liked that idea. What I didn’t like so much about that plan though were the chairs.

Her chair.

My chair.

It wasn’t close enough.

Apparently she felt the same way.

After we cleaned up from dinner, she asked, “Want to go hang out on the boat? Listen to music?” She cocked her head to the side, being both a flirt and a shy vixen. Then she admitted, “Maybe I’ll touch you.”

“Maybe?” Her words alone gave me enough pleasure, but I was seriously interested in how she was planning on doing this touching. That thought alone made my dick twitch.

“Your odds are very good, Doctor.”

Very good was good enough for me. I’d let her lead this round since she was going for it.

Stupid f*cking no condom having gas station.

I didn’t know how fast she could shower, but in the time I was gone, she’d gotten a lot done. Walking down the narrow dock behind her at sunset, I saw that she’d put a quilt down on the floorboard of the boat and added a few pillows. I noticed a cooler. She was prepared.

“What if I would have said I didn’t want to get in the boat?”

She chuckled as she stepped onto the boat. “I have more than one trick up my sleeve.”

I found a place to sit and propped one leg up against the side of the boat. She knelt on the quilt and pulled two glasses out of the cooler and a chilled bottle of wine.

“Wine?” I asked, surprised that it wasn’t her customary Newcastle. She’d passed on wine at my house.

“I like this kind. It’s from a winery not too far from here. I like it because it’s not too sweet and not too dry.”

I thought, sounds about right, just like you. A perfect blend.

I liked wine, and it was just another fun element about her I hadn’t expected. Another thing in common.

“You have a nice little picnic down here.”

“I wanted to do something nice to say thank you for last night, and for going out with me today. For everything.”

Last night wasn’t the best, most thought-out first date in history. I would have loved to take her out on the town somewhere, maybe see if she liked to dance, or even take her to a nice place to eat. Wynne only had one nice place that I knew of, the golf course by the lake, but it was all so new and I’d wanted her to be comfortable.

The fact that she’d had a good time and needed to thank me for it only proved how no one had ever taken the time to show her a proper date.

And today?

I couldn’t remember a day where I’d been more out of my element, but enjoyed it nonetheless. She was in her element, and damn, did she shine.

“You don’t have to thank me, but I like this.”

She reached up and flicked on the radio, turning the volume only loud enough to hear what song was on. Then she kicked back and sat close to me with her wine.

I wrapped an arm around her and we sat there for a while drinking and enjoying the fiery sky.

When our glasses went dry, she refilled them and came right back to my side. Her warm body fit next to mine like it was made to go there.

She drank her second glass a lot faster than the first, which led me to believe she was looking for a little courage.

After she emptied it, she said, “Last night, when you said all of that stuff, I didn’t know what to say, Vaughn. I know I’m a little strange, but hearing you say what you did really made me think.”

I didn’t want to interrupt. So when she paused, I just rubbed her arm and gave her time to get it all out.

“I don’t know how to do this. I like you, and I think you like me, but I’ve never been someone’s girlfriend. Hell, I don’t even know if that’s what you want. I just know that I like the way you make me feel, and I like the way you look at me.”

She sat her empty glass down, not caring that it tipped over and rolled away.

“And I’m not very good at talking about this stuff, and you are, but I want to try. When you kiss me, or when you look into my eyes, I don’t know what to do with myself, and I get worried that I’ll make a mistake, or say something stupid. Which you’ve already witnessed. I don’t want to mess this up.”