Chapter 5
TATE
Warning bells had been going off all night, but I kept ignoring them.
I had no desire to leave this girl and go back to being alone again.
I just didn’t know what the fuck to do with her.
All I knew for sure was what I couldn’t do with her.
That list seemed to be endless. But damn, I was having fun.
As we walked from the restaurant back toward the main building, I turned to her. “Where to, DD?”
She raised a brow. “DD?”
“Doris-Delores...”
“Oh.” She laughed. “You mean, you’re not ditching me?”
“My better judgment is nowhere to be found at the moment.”
Her eyes lit up. “Did I see something about a Wednesday late-night dessert bar?”
Yes. Good. Whatever we did tonight, it needed to be in public, so the dessert bar was perfect.
“Yeah, it usually starts at ten.”
“Usually? You’ve been already, huh?”
Many times over the years. I wasn’t about to admit my family owned this place. Not that I was ashamed, but I’d never lived off my parents’ wealth, and telling her the owners were my folks would give her the wrong idea about me.
“I heard someone talking about it,” I explained.
“Oh, okay. Let’s check it out.”
I nodded. “I think it’s this way.” I led her down a hallway to where I knew they set up the dessert bar.
I also needed to continue walking in front of her because I couldn’t seem to stop staring at her pert little ass, which was torture.
I hadn’t felt this feral over someone since I was a damn teenager myself, and I needed to get my freaking dick in check before I made a mistake I’d regret.
But she made me feel young and carefree, and that was addicting as all hell.
She squealed in delight when she spied the giant chocolate fountain, and I had to smile. The fountain was pretty cool, and it reminded me of coming here as a kid when my grandparents had owned the place, before they’d passed it on to my mother and father.
The resort had been renovated multiple times, but the dessert bar was always a staple.
I hadn’t been back here for several years, but now I needed a dose of the nostalgia and peace it had once brought me.
Though peace wasn’t likely on the menu as long as I was with DD.
Invigorated was a better word to describe the way I’d felt since the moment she entered my periphery.
“This is too good to be true,” she said as she plated some strawberries.
I couldn’t have said it better as I once again found myself standing behind her, with my eyes planted on her tight bottom.
I supposed this was better than constantly getting caught sneaking peeks at her breasts.
I’d been pretty shameless about that, convincing myself it was okay so long as I looked and didn’t touch.
She made herself a plate of strawberries with a huge dollop of chocolate sauce in the middle.
“You’re not gonna get anything?” she asked.
She seemed to have serious concerns about my lack of interest in the dessert.
“I’m full from that cake,” I explained.
“Oh yeah. Almost forgot about the cake. But I had some of that, too. I don’t understand how anyone could refuse strawberries and chocolate. I don’t care how full you are.”
I shrugged. Refusing her was a lot harder than the damn strawberries.
We found a table and sat down. Then things took a turn I wasn’t sure I’d recover from.
Doris-Delores looked straight at me as she dipped a strawberry into the chocolate sauce. A moment after she sank her teeth into it, chocolate dripped down her chest into her cleavage. I might have thought it was accidental were it not for the mischievous grin on her face.
Blatant torture at its finest.
“You think you’re funny, huh?”
“Whoopsie.” She laughed.
My lips tingled. There was nothing I wanted more than to lick it off her, and I wasn’t sure what that said about me.
But I was pretty sure the definition of hell was watching that chocolate drip down her skin and not being able to lick it off.
My mouth watered as my pants grew tighter.
The longer I spent with her, the less I could trust myself.
Yet the guilt over my weakness was also starting to wane in favor of allowing myself to appreciate her company and see where this went.
I knew where it wouldn’t go: my bed. I’d already made up my mind that, come hell or high water, I wasn’t going to sleep with her. But I enjoyed being around her. I could do that, right?
In the spirit of enjoyment, I reached out my finger. Her eyes went wide.
“May I?” I asked.
She swallowed. “Yeah.”
I swiped the line of chocolate from her cleavage up to her neck and licked my finger. Her eyes followed my movements.
“Wow,” she breathed.
I licked my lips. “What’s that?”
“There might be hope after all.”
I chuckled. “Don’t get too excited.”
She lowered her eyes to my crotch. “You’re telling me not to get excited? I feel like the bulge in your pants says differently.”
“The bulge you speak of is the normal state of things. You can’t take credit for it.”
Her eyes filled with excitement. “Well, excuse me.”
She dipped another strawberry into some chocolate, then reached toward my mouth.
I opened and took a bite, catching some of the chocolate with my hand.
Her feeding me was erotic as hell, and I was delusional if I thought this situation was going to end well.
I needed to figure out how to get away from her, but I couldn’t imagine it.
She was a dick magnet. Though it wasn’t just physical anymore.
There were other reasons I was seriously attracted to her.
She was funny, charismatic, and refreshingly honest. Well, despite lying about her age and name.
Other than that, her honesty was refreshing.
“I’m enjoying your company,” I confessed.
“I’m enjoying yours, too.” She smiled.
“I know I’ve been toeing the line with you, but nothing more can happen beyond just hanging out, okay?”
“You feel the need to announce that for the umpteenth time after you practically licked chocolate off my body?”
“That’s precisely why I needed to announce it again. I don’t want you to have the wrong idea.”
“Oh sure,” she huffed. “Because it’s me who’s confused. You just stuck your finger between my tits and licked it.”
She had a point. My jaw tightened.
“Right.” I cleared my throat. “That’s what I meant. I’ve been pushing it, and I need to stop.”
“I heard you the first time. It sounds more like you’re trying to convince yourself of something you don’t really believe.” She stood. “If it would make things easier for you, I can go back to my room. We don’t need to see each other again.”
My dick was the first to scream in protest.
“I don’t want that,” I said, placing my hand on her arm until she sat back down.
I realized I was the confused one here. I wasn’t making sense. Everything I did contradicted what I’d been saying. That was a direct reflection of the war going on between my mind and my body. I wasn’t sure what that said about me, but I suspected the news wasn’t good.
She pushed her plate aside. “You don’t think I can see through you, Tate?”
“Why don’t you tell me what you see?”
“You’re no different than I am. You’re a boy trapped inside a rugged man’s body.
You want to let loose, have fun with me—every part of you but your conscience.
Your brain is telling you that you’re too old for me, but you know we’re not all that incompatible.
You’re just as lost as I am, just as lonely as I was before we met.
” Her mouth curved into a smile. “But we’re not lonely anymore, are we? ”
God, it was like she could see inside my head. She’d perfectly articulated the scrambled mess I’d been dealing with. I felt anything but lonely around her. And it’d been a long time since I could say that.
She crossed her legs. “Tell me more about you, Tate.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Anything you’re willing to share.”
My first thought was to go back to when I was her age. Coincidentally, that’s when my life had turned upside down.
“When I was nineteen, I was playing football in college. I had real potential for a professional career, but then I tore my ACL and never got to the point where I could play again.”
Her smile faded. “I’m sorry. That must have been so hard.”
“It was. My whole life plan had been centered on football. I didn’t know what to do.
So, while I wasn’t in good-enough shape to play anymore, I was able to get a waiver for my injury in order to join the military.
It was the perfect escape from my failure and also a way I could channel my energy into something useful.
I still had so much drive inside me, which I could use to help make the world a better, safer place.
At least that’s the way I looked at it back then. ”
“Wow.” Her expression was thoughtful. “That’s brave. I admire you for that.”
“I wasn’t as noble as you might think. There’s a big missing piece to the story.
” I paused. “Two years before that, when I was seventeen, my girlfriend had given birth to our son. He was born while my high school football career was in full swing. My ex felt like I hadn’t given her the attention she needed while she was pregnant, though I’d tried my hardest. So much was happening at once.
I struggled to keep my grades up so I wouldn’t lose my chance to play football in college, and then, there I was, also a brand-new father who had no clue what he was doing. ”
“That’s a whole lot to have to go through at that age.”
I nodded. “She and I broke up shortly after she gave birth, and she slowly shut me out of our son’s life, even though that wasn’t what I wanted.
I was scared. Scared of failure. Scared he’d grow up to hate me.
So when everything went to hell with my injury, joining the military was a convenient way to escape it all. ”
Her eyes widened. “How long did you serve?”