Page 101 of Lee

Hoping that he didn’t see how this was affecting her, Rori shifted to sit next to him. He put his arm around her, his hand settling into the curve of her waist. This close to him, she could smell the cologne he wore and feel the warmth and strength of his body as she leaned into his side.

Lifting his phone, Lee said, “Smile!”

Rori didn’t think about how she should smile, she just let everything she was feeling flow out of her. There was just so much joy in that moment, and there was nowhere else she’d rather be than sitting next to Lee.

“Let’s see how that looks,” Lee said, lowering his phone.

He didn’t move his arm from around her as he bent to look at the screen of the phone, so Rori didn’t move either. She was going to enjoy this for as long as she could.

When he didn’t react to what he saw on his phone, a sick feeling crept into her stomach. Was it that bad? She had no idea if she was photogenic or not, so it was possible that she just didn’t look that good in the selfie.

Rori made a move to shift away from Lee, but he tightened his arm around her. “Do you want to take another picture?”

“Nope. No need for that when the one we took is just perfect.” He turned the phone so that she could see the picture. “You look absolutely beautiful.”

Her breath caught in her lungs at his words, and she glanced up to find him watching her again. That was twice now that he’d said that. Did he really think she was beautiful?

She didn’t consider herself ugly, but compared to her sisters on her mom’s side, she would never say she was beautiful. If anything, she would call herself plain, especially since she didn’t do a lot of what women did these days to enhance their appearance.

Swallowing against the nervous excitement in her stomach, Rori looked at the picture more closely. Of course, Lee was handsome with his beaming smile, but Rori realized that she was beaming too. It really was a wonderful picture.

And now she’d have a picture of the two of them as a remembrance of their first date. It was perfect.

“Can you send me the picture?” Rori asked.

Unfortunately, her request resulted in him removing his arm from around her. Though she would have liked to stay sitting close to him, she shifted slightly, so she wasn’t crowding him.

Her phone chimed just as he said, “There you go.”

She leaned forward to retrieve her phone from the camera bag. When she settled back, Lee braced his arm behind her as he showed her his phone.

“It’s my lock screen,” he said.

“I want it for my lock screen too.”

Rori didn’t move away from the press of Lee’s arm against her back. She’d lived pretty much her whole life without physical contact with people. It had been hard, but she’d gotten used to it over time. She’d had no choice.

There were moments when she intensely craved some sort of physical connection, and there had been a point in her life when she’d thought about sleeping with a man, just to have that connection.

However, she’d realized that doing so would likely lead to more emotional heartache, given her tendency to develop crushes on guys. Knowing her luck, she’d sleep with a guy, fall in love with him, only for him to move on, leaving her broken-hearted.

But now… the desire for that physical connection with Lee was overwhelming. Would that be what she could give him? Her body was all she had to offer.

The very thought of doing that left her unsettled. It just didn’t feel right for her.

So far, aside from putting his arm around her, Lee hadn’t pushed her for anything. What would she do if he did?

Even though being close to him was appealing, her feelings were already focused on Lee. Being physically close to him would only make the inevitable heartache even worse.

She just had to hope that Lee wouldn’t pressure her for anything because the temptation to give in was great.

“Did you want to take more pictures?” Lee asked.

“Yes, I think I would.”

Lee jumped to his feet, then held his hands out to her. She grabbed onto them and allowed him to pull her up. He bent to pick up her camera, then handed it to her.

“I thought I saw some wildflowers over there,” Rori said, pointing to the far edge of the grassy area. “I want to try shooting them.”

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