Page 42 of Always Been You

Ethan heard the shower cut off. "I'll take you to dinner when I get back in town."

"I wasn't really calling for you to take me to dinner."

"I know, Nana."

"Have fun. Tell Jess I said hi. I love you."

"Love you too, bye."

He disconnected the call and caught his reflection in the mirror. He was glad that he kept a Dopp kit and change of clothes in his truck. He'd learned early in his rookie days that the job wasn't nine to five and he needed to be prepared to clean up anywhere.

After Kade and Ali had taken off, he'd rinsed off in the shower and put on fresh clothes, but he hadn't taken the time to shave. He rubbed his chin. His schedule had been so crazy lately. It had been a few days since he'd taken a razor to his face. His grow out was somewhere between stubble and full beard.

"I like it." Jess's voice came from the direction of the bathroom.

He hadn't even heard the door open, but when he looked up, there she was.

"The stubble," she pointed toward his face. "I like it."

Ethan would typically return the compliment, but when he opened his mouth to speak, nothing came out.

Jess had changed into a form-fitting black dress with white polka dots. It hugged her curves and accentuated the flare of her hips. Her hair was pulled off of her face, but there was some that fell loose around her shoulders. Her lips were a bright red and they were calling to him like a siren of the sea.

"You look...." He tried to put into words what he saw when he looked at her. Her beauty, her confidence, her essence was so sexy, so alluring, so magnetic. But he couldn't find the right words to articulate the magnitude of her appeal.

She lifted her arms and spun around. That’s when he saw that the dress left her entire back exposed, showcasing several tattoos that complimented the slender slope of her spine.

"Wow," he breathed.

He must’ve successfully communicated all that was behind that "wow" because a faint blush rose on Jess's cheeks and she dipped her head. He'd never seen her shy before.

Every second he spent with Jess cemented what he'd always known in his gut. She was it. She was the one. She was his one.

14

Jess didn't believe in fairytales, but if she did, she'd be sure that she was living one right now. The sound of the horse's hooves hitting the ground as it pulled the carriage that carried her and the man of her dreams was not doing anything to dispel that fantasy.

Ethan's arm was resting on the back of the seat, his thumb lazily making circles around her shoulder. Each pass was a powerful aphrodisiac. Who knew that such an innocent area could be an erogenous zone?

A shiver ran through her as the calloused pad of his thumb brushed a particularly sensitized portion of her bare skin. The next thing she knew, she was being covered with his jacket.

"Oh no, I'm okay." She started to shrug out of it, but he held it in place.

Her first instinct was to push back and insist that she didn't need it, but when the warmth of the garment and masculine scent enveloped her, she instead relaxed into it.

She took in a deep breath and tried to be as in the moment as possible as she looked out over the park. The entire night had been pure magic. Just like Ethan predicted they'd been seated immediately upon arriving at the restaurant. Carter's aunt met them at the hostess stand and said that she'd set up something special for them, which turned out to be quite the understatement. They were seated in the outdoor garden area that was blanketed in twinkle lights and had soft music playing through hidden speakers.

She'd taken so many mental photographs tonight that she was going to need more ram in her brain to store them. She hadn't stopped snapping them since the moment she opened the door of the bathroom. The look on Ethan's face at that moment was one she never wanted to forget. He'd never looked at her that way before. It was a combination of wonder, awe, and raw desire. She'd been half-tempted to suggest skipping dinner altogether and seeing what look she could inspire if she'd just stripped out of her dress then and there.

But she was glad she hadn't. Because if she had, she wouldn't be experiencing this. She glanced to her side and saw the moonlight dancing over Ethan's handsome face.

"Hey, there's something that I've been wanting to ask you."

He looked over at her.

"How did you know how old I was when I had my first kiss?"

Jess hadn't told anyone about that day. It had felt like something special, something that she'd wanted to be just hers. She hadn't even written it in the diary that she'd kept at the time. It was sacred.

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