her moment. To either put her cards on the table or walk away. It was a weird thing, the fact that he seemed to understand what she was thinking, and that he hadn’t run the other direction.
Maybe, if she wanted to, she could have Finn Donnelly.
There was nothing to be pitied about that. He looked... Strong, and capable. And he had very big hands. That was supposed to be a good thing. She was pretty sure. Really, regardless of what it was indicative of, his hands were nice.
She sat down. Still, she felt anything but decisive. “Let me buy you a drink,” he said.
She crawled her hands into fists, resting them on the tabletop. “Okay. That would be great.”
He stood up, crossing the space and moving over to the bar. She pressed her hand against her forehead, wondering exactly what she was doing. Well, she knew what she was doing. She was hoping to pick up a guy. And she had of course ended up sitting with the guy that she knew. Though, they didn’t know each other that well.
A bottle of beer appeared on the table in front of her and she looked up, her eyes clashing with Finn’s. “Thank you,” she said.
He lifted a shoulder. “Sure.” He sat down across from her, his gaze assessing.
Every other time she had ever put herself in a position similar to this with a guy, she had carefully set it up to fail. To trap him into saying something that would make it so it was easy to send him packing. She usually went out of her way to find something wrong with him. Something wrong with what he said, what he did.
But...
But, in theory she wanted this to succeed. To go to its final conclusion. Oh Lord. Did she actually want to have sex with Finn? An image of Gage superimposed itself over the picture she was trying to create of herself kissing Finn.
“How about we dance?” She was surprised by that offer, in part because Finn didn’t exactly seem like the kind of guy who danced, but maybe that was just because she had never seen him pick a woman up.
Was he picking her up? Was this actually happening?
She swallowed hard. “Okay.”
He reached out, taking hold of her hand, and she followed his lead, allowing him to take her to the middle of the uncluttered area of the bar that acted as a dance floor. The jukebox was playing midtempo country music, and Finn pulled her up against his hard body. For the second time that night, she found herself in a man’s arms. After going so long without being touched, it was especially strange.
She let out a slow, shaking breath, resting her forehead against his shoulder as he took hold of her hand and held it up, bracing it against his chest.
“We don’t know each other that well,” he said, his voice low in her ear. “Strange, since we’re around each other enough.”
“We don’t have to talk,” she said.
She raised her head, examining his expression. He looked surprised, but amused. “Suit yourself.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to be horrible. I just... You don’t have to play like you’re interested in what I have to say suddenly just because...you know.”
He nodded slowly. “I appreciate the honesty. Are you okay, though? Because from what I know of you, this isn’t exactly typical behavior.”
She forced a smile. “What do you care if you get laid?”
To his credit, he didn’t look shocked. “I guess I don’t.”
“As long as this doesn’t...as long as it doesn’t cause any problems with Lane.”
His jaw tensed, almost imperceptibly. But she was so close she could see the slight shift, and he was holding her against his body, so she could feel the tension rise inside of him. “It wouldn’t. It won’t.”
“Good.”
So weird. So strange to have this conversation when they hadn’t even kissed. Suddenly, he moved his hand on her back, the hold becoming more all-encompassing, and she could sense that he was about to remedy the kiss situation.
She let her eyes flutter closed, tilting her face up, showing him that she was ready. She did her best to push back on the intruding images of Gage. She wasn’t going to think about him. Or the kiss they had shared just an hour and a half ago. Wasn’t going to think about the fact that when she thought about kissing, it was him that she wanted. That it was him her body was electrified for even now, readying itself