of her words crash down on me like a gnarly wave—the kind that totally sends you tombstoning. “What did you say?”
Dots looks at me like I’ve lost my marbles—and maybe I have, but the thought of her sitting not even three feet away from me with no panties on is almost more than I can take. The temptation to slide my hand beneath the slit in her skirt and up her thigh to test for myself…fuuuuuck.
“Dane!” her small, soft hand comes down on my arm and I jolt like it’s a livewire. “Are you okay?”
I scrub a hand over my face. “Not even a little.”
“H-how can I help?” she asks, her voice breathy.
I pin her with a hard glare, that melts the second I meet her wide eyes. Her pupils are dilated, and her chest is rising and falling rapidly. She’s turned on, I think to myself. Ditto, Dots, fucking ditto.
Without fully thinking it through, I unbuckle her seatbelt, slide her across the bench and haul her onto my lap. Her luscious lips part on a gasp as I kiss her hard and hungrily.
Her hands grip the front of my shirt, urging me closer as mine tangle in her hair. Tugging, I tilt her head to the perfect angle to utterly devour her. Our lips, tongues, and hands move together in what feels like a well-practiced harmony. This is our first kiss, but it feels like a homecoming.
After countless minutes, we break apart. “Do you feel better?” Dots asks, tracing the pad of her index finger over her kiss-swollen lips.
“I feel fucking amazing.”
She tries to scoot back to the passenger seat, but I clamp my hand down onto her thigh. “Stay.”
Her lips tip up in a pleased grin as I adjust myself and shift the truck back into gear. Her head rests on my shoulder and my hand on her thigh as we drive a few more minutes down the narrow tree-lined road until it dead-ends in a small gravel parking lot.
“Let me get everything ready,” I tell her as I hop out of the truck.
SEVEN
Thea
I SIT IN a daze, replaying our kiss while Dane does…only God knows. Whatever it is, I trust him. Which is kind of crazy; then again, I’m pretty damn positive his kiss scrambled my brain. My lips are still tingling and my clit is pulsing with need. I’ve never been so turned on in my entire life.
I’ve always been a three-date kind of girl, but I swear on all that’s holy, I’d have let him have his way with me on the side of the road back there, had he tried to—so yeah, totally scrambled.
I’m lost in my own lusty daydreams when the passenger door opens, scaring the life out of me. “Jesus, Dane!” I shout, clutching my hands to my chest.
He grins. “C’mon, Dots.”
I allow him to help me down from his truck. He tucks my hand into his and leads me around to the tailgate. The sight laid out before me absolutely blows my mind.
SadGirl plays from a small Bluetooth speaker and the bed of his truck is loaded down with plush blankets and pillows. He has a cooler sitting on the tailgate and twinkling lights strung across the back window. This isn’t a date—it’s a proverbial paradise smack-dab in the middle of actual paradise.
“Dane,” I whisper his name as he palms my hips and helps me up into the bed of the truck.
“You like it?” he asks, looking unsure.
“I love it.”
His trademark cocky grin appears. “Good.” He settles in next to me. “You hungry?”
“Starved.”
He retrieves the cooler and pulls out an assortment of goodies: crackers, summer sausage, various cheeses, olives, fruit, and two bottles of water.
We talk as we eat, reminiscing about our childhood and all the shit we got into as kids. Story after story, I’m reminded both of how easy things are with him and how much it hurt when he left.
Though, since we cleared the air, it stings less. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not excusing his bullshit behavior—he was a total jackass, but I have no plans of holding it against him.
“You remember when we played hide-and-seek with Danny and Nicky?” he asks as he cleans up the remnants of our dinner.
I nod, trying to hold back my laughter.
“Took them two hours to find us.”
A giggle breaks free. “That’s because we went to your room and watched TV.”
We spend more time in the past before I finally gather the courage to ask what I really want to know.