Page 29 of Fighting Fate

11

The breeze blows up my legs when our server closes the door to our intimate igloo overlooking Tower Bridge. The atmosphere is calm with soft piano music covers of pop songs playing in the background. It’s the nicest second date I’ve ever had. Even if I know it’s too good to be true, it’s impossible to ignore the pull inside me that draws me to Rory. It’s screaming for him to touch me again. Throughout our entire dinner conversation, all I can think about is how good his lips feel on mine and how badly I want him to kiss me again. Harder this time. I want a full-on Rory kiss that’s all bite and gruffness.

Instead, he keeps watching me. Dark eyes meander from mine, slowly tracing down to my chest. I know I did this. He’s doing everything he can to unnerve me after the picture message this afternoon. I’m not sure why I sent it to him, but at the time, it seemed the best way to have the last word.

“Like what you see?” I ask, trying to keep my voice from breaking when his stare flashes back to mine.

It’s what he asked me that first time we met. The words he teased me with the first time we fucked. Because damn…I’ve had sex with a lot of guys. I’ve seen a whole lot of dick before, but Rory’s is the sort of stop in your tracks and double take kind of impressive.

“Hmm…” he snickers, readjusting himself in his seat so that his legs ghost mine. Goosebumps race up my body, making it hard not to react to the electric pulse that crackles up my spine at the almost contact.

It’s never been like this with anyone. Rory and I are complete opposites, but like magnets, we attract. It’s totally inexplicable. It is what it is, and I’ve given up trying to understand it.

As much as I want to protect myself, it seems a futile fight when Rory looks at me with a smile that ties my stomach in a million knots. I don’t know what he’s done to me, but my heart goes crazy when he’s near.

He’s got this aura about him that’s contagious, and the things he says to me are nothing but genuine with the way he looks me in the eyes. It’s as though I’m transparent under his stare. And there isn’t a part of me that doesn’t burn for him.

“Want anything else?” he asks me, reaching across the table and resting his hand close to mine so that our fingertips are almost touching. A feverish heat buzzes at my fingertips before it zaps up my arm and fizzes through me.

The almost touch is a shock to the system that sends my heart into overdrive. Then his foot nudges mine, followed by the skim of his leg along mine. It takes me a moment to compose myself enough to answer him.

“No, I’m done.” My voice is but a whisper, hardly recognisable to me.

Pressing the button to call our server to our pod, he tells me, “I’ll take you home.”

There’s no way he’s being serious. The sly smirk on his face says so, but when he pays for the bill and then asks the waitress to call us a cab, I start to doubt my assurance. Rory’s apartment is on the eighth floor of this building. He should be taking me back up there and making good on his promise. Instead, he walks me to the waiting taxi, his hand hovering over the small of my back as he guides me inside in silence.

“I had a good time,” he says when we’re both seated.

He’s settled beside me, and although the bench is wide, the way he sits with his thighs spread wide, bulging in his dark jeans, means that we’re touching, causing the heat licking my insides to blaze to an all-out inferno that has my pulse thundering in my ears.

“You’re not so bad…” I attempt to keep our easy banter with a shrug.

“Come on, doll,” he rumbles with a faint chuckle while his eyes drop to my hands, watching as my fingers knot and twine in the fabric of my dress.

It’s not just that I’m sexually frustrated at this point by our back-and-forth; it’s that there is nothing I can do about this madness taking over me. The wrap skirt pulls open when I adjust myself in the seat, and when he licks his lips, wicked visions of what he can do with his tongue assault me.

Noticing the way my thighs press together, he states, “We both know you like me.”

“Like?” I part scoff and half stammer, flipping my hair over one shoulder. “Now, you’re really reaching…”

Without pause, Rory swivels to look at me head-on. His hand roughly combs into my hair, moulding to my nape as he holds my gaze to his. “You more than like me.”

“You’ve really lost your mind.”

“Probably,” he replies, a wicked grin pulling at one side of his face. “Explains why I’m here with you.”

A laugh I can’t contain bursts from me, making his grin widen. His thick lips make my mouth water with the unrelenting desire to be kissed…devoured…completely and utterly consumed by his taste alone.

When the taxi comes to a stop, it takes a while for either of us to react. It’s not until the driver clears his throat that Rory pays and then gets out of the cab. Holding his hand out to me, he thanks the driver before tugging me to him. There’s just enough space between us to make me ache. I can’t take any more of this. My entire being is lit up and raring to go. I’m one almost touch, one barely there breath from completely losing my mind.

“Thanks for tonight,” Rory says, raking his gaze over my face as though he’s getting ready to say goodbye.

“This is our second date.”

“Yeah, but you don’t like me, so it’s bes—”

“Just stop talking and kiss me already!” Before he denies me, I roll onto my tiptoes, and with my hands fisted in the open collar of his shirt, I pull myself flush to him. The second my lips press to his, Rory engulfs me with his arms, squeezing me so tight in his hold that every part of me throbs.

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