Chapter Twenty-Eight
Sloane leaned across the table. “What did you say?”
Loud cheers from the bar drowned out August’s response. They looked toward the bar, where four men had crowded another guy and chanted, “Shots, shots, shots.” They whooped it up when their buddy downed four shots in a row.
Laughing, Sloane caught August’s eye. “Bachelor party,” they said in unison.
“Maybe we should go,” she said, raising her voice to be heard over the ruckus. August tossed a few bills on the table and they skedaddled.
Outside the bar, Sloane happily inhaled the fresh air and went to slip on her jacket.
“Here, let me.”
She hesitated a second before handing the denim jacket to August and turning her back to him. He stepped closer, his body heat warming her. Sloane sucked in a breath. Was it her imagination or did he linger over his task as she slipped her arms into the sleeves and he swept his hands across her shoulders to make sure the jacket settled properly? Odds were she was being fanciful, but her heart trembled anyway.
She turned. He didn’t move away. He smelled wonderful. And she was ridiculous. The kiss was a mistake, remember? And yet she still wanted him. But that was her little secret, thank God.
Time to get moving. “My car’s down there.”
“I’ll walk you to your car.”
Ever the gentleman. Sloane headed down the sidewalk with August at her side. Like this was a date. Except it wasn’t. Sloane stifled a sigh. They reached her car, but she didn’t make a move to get inside. Instead, she basked in the comfortable silence between them. Basked in simply being with him.
August rubbed the back of his neck. “If I didn’t say so earlier, thanks for coming tonight and enduring my weirdest date in a minute, and then staying to cheer me up when it went all the way left.”
Sloane grinned. “I don’t know if it went all the way left. I mean she didn’t toss a drink in your face. No fights broke out.”
He blanched. “You’re right. It could’ve been way worse.” His eyes crinkled at the corners, a detail she had no business noticing. She’d blame it on the one beer she’d had. The fact that alcohol dulled your senses, not made you more aware, was way beside the point.
“But still, I had a good time tonight, thanks to you,” he continued, mercifully oblivious to the ramblings of her mind. “You’re good people, Sloane Dell.”
She was just going to ignore the warmth spreading like melted wax through her entire body. She was also going to ignore the way he looked at her. Like he really saw her and appreciated her for her, not just his best friend’s little sister or the teen girl who’d thrown herself at him.
“You’re welcome.” Her voice came out a little softer than she intended, but he still heard her. He nodded, his eyes going all serious.
“I learned something tonight.”
His voice, his face mesmerized her. She couldn’t look away. “What?”
“Dating isn’t so bad if it’s done with the right person. It’s actually kind of the best.”
Breath lodged in her throat. Her vision went hazy for a moment as shock swept through her veins. She should say something. Do something other than stare up at him with eyes that undoubtedly reflected all of the surprise coursing through her and the feelings for him that had never completely gone away no matter how hard she’d willed them to. The hope that curled around her heart.
But how could she when he was staring at her with hot, covetous eyes? When her feelings were being telegraphed back at her? Or was that more wishful thinking on her part? Was she letting the teenaged girl she’d been guide her thoughts now? Was she getting lost in the past? Worse, was he just feeling the moment, recognizing that their time in the bar was extremely date-like?
It had been his idea to go on the date with Paige, after all. But no, there was no denying the interest in his eyes. The intent.
She should move away. Put an end to this. Tell him they couldn’t. Tell him she should go home. Instead, her lips parted as he tilted her chin upward with a gentle forefinger. Always, always so careful with her, his gentleness belying his natural strength. Her eyes fluttered closed. A soft sigh escaped as his lips touched hers for the first time in what felt like forever, though in reality it had only been a few days. So, yeah, forever.
The embrace felt like coming home, like his mouth had been made specifically for hers. August didn’t hurry. He sampled. He sipped like he was relearning the shape of her mouth. His lips slid across hers once, twice. It was almost chaste. Almost. There was a fire, a hunger behind the exploration that came through in his thoroughness, in his complete and utter devotion to his task. He was a man not to be denied. Not that she had any intention of denying him. Or herself.
A strong arm curled around her waist and unhesitatingly drew her against his hard, unyielding body.
Sloane gasped. Despite the cool spring night, his body, his oh-so-firm body, was a furnace. She couldn’t wait to throw herself in the fire.
The gasp seemed to be the signal he was waiting for. Seemed to unleash something in him. His hand slid from her chin to her nape and held her in place as he kissed her like a man desperate for oxygen only she could provide. Thorough, yet hungry in his exploration of her mouth.
A dual moan escaped into the air as their tongues reacquainted themselves.
Sloane eagerly rose on her toes and dug her nails into his shoulders. He wasn’t the only one with questions. With answers. She wanted him just as much. When he drew away briefly for breath, she greedily swept her tongue across the bottom lip that haunted her in her dreams. It was she that demanded entry into his mouth this time. Moaned when he acquiesced.
Sloane crowded closer. She wanted to climb him like a tree. Wanted to feel his hardness between her legs, giving her pleasure. She moaned in approval when he slipped a leg in between hers and rubbed against the spot desperate for attention. She was greedy, unashamed, uninhibited riding his thigh. Their tongues tangled together, sliding against each other in the same slow, determined rhythm as their lower body parts.
She wasn’t a teen anymore. She was an adult, fully aware of her desires. She wanted him now, tonight, and tomorrow.
A burst of laughter, then music filtered through her senses. Coming closer.
She froze, then wrenched away. She ignored the way it felt like leaving the bliss of spring and plunging directly into the harsh depths of winter.
They were in a parking lot of a busy strip mall of bars and restaurants.
What was she doing? She’d told herself not to do this. Not to give in to the feelings she still harbored for him. She was shaking. Shaking with desire. With confusion. With longing to return to his arms.
Sloane squeezed her eyes shut like that small action would actually help in restoring her balance and sense of right and wrong. When she opened her eyes, August watched her with his all-seeing eyes. He didn’t make a move toward her, as though sensing she needed the space, even as everything inside her tried to rebel at the notion. But she was in charge. Not her hormones. Not her feelings. She couldn’t let him, let anyone, hurt her. Not again. Not ever.
“I can’t. We can’t. I don’t…” She was babbling. Incoherent. Thoughts in a scramble as lust still swirled in her veins.
Where was her purse? There on the pavement where it had slid off her shoulder as she went to kiss him. Her hands were shaking, and it took two swipes before she grabbed the clutch. Another three swipes before she grasped the door handle and pressed the button to unlock the door.
“Sloane,” August said from behind her.
She shook her head. She didn’t want to hear again that this was a mistake. She wouldn’t survive that rejection for the third time.
She wrenched the door open, got in her car, and sped off.
She didn’t look back. She couldn’t. Not if she wanted to keep moving forward.