as he glances at me curiously.
I press my hands to the top of my laptop. “No, but I can catch up later.”
“Good, because I think we need to revisit and revise some of your rules.” Dean glances at me and waggles his eyebrows in an ominous way.
“What did you have in mind?”
“Well, Kate and Lynsey are like sharks, and if they smell blood in the water, they will attack. So…we need to tweak those PDA restrictions you have. I need to be able to touch you freely if we’re going to sell this.”
My chest tightens at the thought of Dean’s hands on me. I still have a funny swirling in my stomach every time I think of that kiss we shared before. It was…surprising. I expected it to be rash and completely void of chemistry because all I cared about was pissing off my mother, but Dean took over that kiss and well…
It was hot.
Probably the hottest kiss I’ve ever experienced.
Which makes the idea of him fondling me in front of his friends really nerve-wracking. My voice is quiet when I ask, “What did you have in mind exactly?”
He glances out of the corner of his eye and, without asking, reaches across the console and places his big warm hand on my bare thigh just above my knee. “Something like this.”
My entire leg erupts in goose bumps that I’m sure he notices but doesn’t say anything. His fingers skate lightly over my skin as he settles into the embrace that seems simple but causes a riot of electricity to shoot straight up my thigh to the area between my legs.
He teases the frayed hem of my shorts with his pinkie. “Think this is okay?”
I swallow the lump in my throat and nod. “It’s fine.”
“You could hold my hand while I’m doing it too,” he offers with a shrug.
I quickly wipe my palms off on my plaid shirt and then rest my hands on top of his like it’s not causing me to feel hot all over my body.
He beams casually. “See? This is nice, right?”
I nod woodenly.
“And don’t be surprised if I pat your ass once in a while. That’s totally something I’d do to a girl I was serious with.”
God, this is going to be harder than I thought.
“Also, kissing,” Dean adds, wrapping his hand farther around my leg and squeezing. “I think we’ve established we’re good at the kissing, so we should just keep doing that whenever it makes sense.”
I pin him with a look. “I don’t think we need to kiss.”
“Why not?”
“Because…it’s…weird to kiss in front of people. Tons of couples don’t go that far in front of people.”
“I’m not like most people, Norah. I’d be affectionate if I had a girlfriend like you.”
“Like me,” I repeat and chew my lip nervously. “What does that mean?”
Dean exhales heavily and pulls his hand from my leg as we approach a curve up a large mountain. “You’re beautiful, you’re successful, you’re kind. You have killer legs. You’re super uptight, which makes you a challenge, and I love a challenge. So yeah, I’m pretty sure if this were a real relationship, I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off you.”
My body shivers at the assault of the casual compliments Dean just threw my way. How is he so cool with all of this? I wish I had an ounce of his confidence.
His voice cuts into my thoughts when he adds, “Frankly, I think we should pull over and have sex right now because, with the limited oxygen at this elevation, the sexual tension in this car is stifling.”
Dean glances over with a teasing smirk and now I feel like I’m doing a good impression of that flapping bass fish on the wall that my mother mastered last weekend. “You’re kidding, right?”
He shrugs. “I don’t think it sounds like a bad idea.”
“It sounds like a horrible idea because we’re not really in a relationship,” I bark and can feel a faint sheen of sweat collecting on my upper lip. I reach forward and open the vent to blow air on my face.
“And we have to be in a real relationship to have sex?” he asks, pinning me with a serious look.
“Um, it’d be preferred.”
“People have casual sex all the time, Norah.”
“Not me,” I reply and instantly think of Barrett. We totally had casual sex after we broke up and then never spoke again because it was awkward afterward, and we both regretted it. I do not want to suffer through