Chapter 18 #2
“What are you thinking about, Birdie?” He ignores my statement, pressing into me, his tall, lean body covering mine and making my breath stutter and my heart palpitate.
All I can think about is us upstairs in the shower…
“I, ah, um. Dirty.” No, abort, abort mission. Stop talking, Wren. Just don’t do it anymore. Say nothing. Nothing more.
But those baby blue eyes of his sparkle with mischief. “Are you mine, Birdie?” He leans down, so close to my lips. Inhaling slowly, he breathes in my essence, stealing my gasp until I can’t speak, rendering my voice useless.
“Arlo.” My eyes dance between his, wanting to give him everything he’s asking of me and so much more.
But something holds me back, an unknown drive that steals this moment and prevents me from enjoying his touch and his promise of love—fear.
Fear that I don’t deserve love because life stole that love from me every single time I felt it.
Fear that I will never live up to his expectations and be the partner he deserves.
Fear that in a few weeks, I will leave him and destroy him completely, and I know, deep down, he deserves so much more than that.
He deserves everything. A partner, a lover, and someone he can call his, and I still don’t know if I can give him that.
Closing his eyes, he drops his head back to peer up at the cloudless blue sky. Yet he doesn’t move his body from mine, though I know he can feel me pulling away from him.
He lowers his head, a smirk stretching across his face.
That is an unexpected smirk, and I don’t know how to handle it. It looks like a trick.
That’s when he does the unexpected. He leans into me, mud caked between our bodies, and he brushes his lips against mine.
Just a brush.
A teasing touch.
Yet my world explodes.
It isn’t even a kiss, not a real one. His beard tickles my chin and my upper lip as he slowly, ever so freaking slowly, moves his lips against mine with that teasing touch. My body explodes with need, with want, with the promise of more and more.
A moan slips from my lips, and that’s when he pulls back, his eyes sparkling.
“I’m a patient man, Birdie.” He smiles at me, his beard still so close to my face that the coarse hairs tease me. “And you are worth every agonizing minute of the wait.”
He pulls away, leaving me stunned and confused and wanting to close that gap once more and kiss him for real, but I will forever ingrain this moment in my head.
The way he felt against my body as he pressed into me. His spicy scent, and how he looked at me as though I were his everything and nothing in this world would ever change that, even as I denied it, denied the feeling between us.
The promise of more.
Cold water hits me, chilling me to the bone as a screech leaves my lips.
“There you are,” he teases while he unceremoniously takes the hose and drenches me from head to toe.
My teeth chatter. “Ar-lo.” I try my very best to give him a growl of annoyance, but it doesn’t sound right.
“We have about thirty seconds to wash all this mud off of you and get you back into the house before you freeze to death.” He isn’t serious. He would never allow that to happen to me. Right?
Okay, I’m pretty sure, but that cold water is exactly what I need to snap me out of the haze of his kiss and the desire that swelled inside me. It’s desire I haven’t felt in a long, long time.
I know I’m going to become addicted to Arlo Larson. I will never get enough of him and his kindness, even his grumpy moments.
Except for this moment, where he guffaws while spraying me with cold water. Limbs frozen, I launch myself at him, catching the hose between us and getting him just as wet as me.
Pun intended.
“Birdie!” he screeches, actually screeches like a bird as the cold water hits him. “Oh no, that’s cold.”
We fall to the ground, each of us wrestling for the hose, but our fingers freeze and his lips turn blue. “In, we need to go in,” I chatter, scrambling off of him to stand on numb feet. “Your mom is cruel.”
“It isn’t the first time she’s made us do this.” He grinds his teeth to keep from chattering as cool wind whips around us, rustling leaves off the trees.
“That’s mean.”
“She really hates mud.” Shutting off the water, he grabs my hand and leads me around to the backdoor.
Just that simple touch sends heat through my body, warding off the chill of the water and the wind. Pressing a finger to his lips, he carefully opens the back door into the mudroom.
Ha. Making use of that today. We toe off our shoes and leave our squelchy socks on the floor. Arlo rips off his undershirt, leaving him in nothing but a long-sleeved shirt that clings to his body. I have no protection because I ran out of the house when Lark did.
Which means… Oh no. I glance down at my cold, shivering body to see my wet thin sweater clinging to every one of my curves and my pants hugging my body. It’s going to be hard to get them off, and in fact, I’ll be peeling them from my body, I’m sure.
I jerk my head up at Arlo’s chuckle.
Feeling brazen, I cock my head. “Like what you see?”
Why am I like this?
His eyes flash with heat as they roam up and down my body, leaving a scorching trail before he meets my eyes with a single raised dark brow. “There was never any question.”
The door to the kitchen flings open, and my brother stands there, staring at us. “So he’s the reason you don’t want to leave.”
“Robin!” I slap my palm to my face as I push past him, leaving their laughter in my wake. I can’t believe he just said that.
“Just stating facts, dear sister,” Robin calls after me.
He isn’t even wrong, and I can’t tell if that is or isn’t the problem here.