him about sleeping with Clay. She barely knew him, and now he would think she truly was a whore.
But then Evan smiled. “You . . . you . . . did what? You slept with . . .” He started chuckling. “So that’s why she called you . . . oh my God, that’s . . . kinda . . . awesome.”
Daphne opened both eyes. “Awesome?”
“I mean, not for her. And maybe not for me, because it’s not like I want to imagine you with someone else, especially someone who’s twenty.”
“He wasn’t twenty. Jeez.”
“Look, I understand how those things happen. I mean, this whole rebounding thing ain’t for the faint of heart. I made some missteps myself. I took out a woman my sister set me up with, and I pretty much did the same thing you did. We had a one-night thing, and suddenly she was planning our wedding. That got rough fast. Then I tried Tinder because one of my friends talked me into it. The woman I met at the bar was twenty-one and brought a flogger thing in her purse. She asked me if I was willing to role-play.”
Daphne lifted her eyebrows. “A flogger?”
“Yeah, and we hadn’t even finished our first drink.”
“She wanted to whip you?”
Evan shrugged. “I dunno. She seemed excited about the possibility. I faked a text that my daughter was sick and told her I had to go. I may have actually jogged to my truck. The dating scene is crazy.”
“I planned to do a dating site but kept putting it off. Maybe if I had, I wouldn’t have done something so . . . impulsive. At least you tried to do it the right way. I just got hammered and lost my damned mind.”
Evan seemed to grow serious. “This truly is all very new to you.”
“It is,” Daphne said. She looked down at her hands twisted together in her lap. “But I’m ready to move on with my life. I’ve grieved my marriage and spent several years trying to claim a life for myself. That being said, I need to fix some things, like my relationship with Ellery, before I jump into a new relationship. I don’t want to start something feeling this bad.”
“What if you can’t fix things?” he asked.
Daphne squeezed her hands together hard, almost wincing at the pressure. “I can. As soon as I figure out how.”
“Sometimes all it takes is time.”
Daphne felt so warmed by his understanding. “You’re such a gentleman. I’m fairly certain anyone else would have tossed me out of his moving vehicle and watched me roll in the light of his taillights.”
“I reserve that right for the second date,” he said with a grin. “So how about I walk you to the door and we do this first-date thing the right way?”
“And what does that entail?” she asked, unbuckling her seat belt.
“Me getting nervous wondering if you’ll let me kiss you. Then wonder if a hug says I have no skills as a player but also know a handshake would portray no interest. And if I manage to get a kiss, how far should I take it? A light peck or. . .” He shrugged.
She crooked a finger at him. “Let me set aside your worries.”
“I like the way you first date, lady,” he said with an impish light in his eyes.
“Kiss me already.”
So he did, his lips a soft whisper before growing bolder. He framed her face in his hands, so tender, as if he would drink from her, take from her, and it was hot and gorgeous and sexy all at once. The rasp of his jaw before she slid a hand to his thick hair, angling her head so he could deepen the kiss, sent desire lapping against her pelvis, uncurling sweet heat and desire. Evan tasted complex—wine and sex, moonlight and earth, old and new.
Finally, he pulled his lips from hers. “Not bad for a first kiss.”
“You’re implying there will be a second,” she whispered as he stroked his big thumb against her lower lip. Want pounded within her along with the realization that this was right. This was what she wanted with a man. This. Right. Here.
“I’m planning on it,” he said, telling her exactly what she wanted to hear.
Daphne was jolted from the memory of Evan and her date back to the present when the doors swooshed open—she was in CVS. She needed to buy hemorrhoidal cream, and oh, by the way, her daughter’s fiancé was gay.