Page 61 of Cowboy Devil's Embrace

“Thank you,” she said, biting her lip nervously. “So, what was that about?”

She was no longer upset. If her scent didn’t give her away, it was her raised eyebrows and the velvet brown eyes beneath them, dancing with mirth.

“That? That was nothing. Just a friendly chat,” I said, nodding my thanks to the woman behind the counter who looked like she was trying not to laugh.

“Friendly, huh? So, why is Burt scrambling to get off the floor?” Penelope asked.

“No idea. Must’ve lost his footing. Did you get salt and butter on this popcorn? I’ve been dying to taste it,” I said, changing the subject.

She nodded and slid her hand through my arm, and I felt about a million feet tall when she did that.

Oh, this woman had my attention. One touch, and I was a slave to her desires.

Only, well, we’d have to tamp down on our desires since my Crew was in the area. Worse than that. They were practically sitting with us.

I frowned as I noticed Emmet’s beat up truck parked two cars down from mine.

Fucking hell.

Trying not to pay any attention to those four assholes, I grinned at my promised and handed her the tray and pulled down the tailgate, pressing a button that rolled the cover back and tucked it inside some secret compartment.

“Hold that one sec,” I murmured, hoping she liked this next part.

It was a lot darker outside now than it had been when we arrived. Just right for the string of solar lights I’d hung on the sides of the truck bed to kick in, highlighting my efforts to make tonight’s date special.

“Wow.” Penelope breathed the word, her hand on her chest as she took in the scene, and I wanted to high five myself.

I resisted, of course. Barely.

Not wanting to be too obvious about the pleasure I felt at watching her reaction, I bit my tongue and just savored the joy on her face.

“Shit. Let me take that,” I murmured, and took the tray of snacks from her hands, putting it down on the lowered tailgate.

It had taken the better part of an hour to set up the back of my truck to make the ideal drive in movie date. And that was after hours of researching what I could do to step this thing up a notch on the internet.

I mean, I was used to showing off in front of dates. Taking them to fine restaurants with reservations available only for months in the future, or getting tickets to sold out shows, that kind of thing.

This was the first time I actually worked on trying to impress a woman myself. And she was not just some woman. She was my promised. My fated mate. And this fucking mattered.

I thanked the gods when she tilted her head back to look at me, and I saw happiness on her face. So, it looked like all my efforts weren’t in vain.

Even if they were. I’d have tried again. I’d do anything for her. My chest squeezed, and I moved closer without realizing it.

For the first time in my life, someone else’s happiness meant more to me than mine. And that changed everything.

It wasn’t just about marking and claiming her. It was about showing her how I felt. Oh, I had plans to ravish her. Hell. It was all I could think about. But not with my Crew a few cars down. Their supernatural senses would grant them too much access to things that were mine and mine alone.

Like the way she sighed when our lips touched.

The moans she’d make when I got my hands on her.

The way her cinnamon scent increased with her arousal.

Oh, no. Those pleasures were for me alone. I wasn’t sharing her with anyone. And fuck them for being cockblocking douches.

“Upsy daisy, Sugar,” I growled, putting my hands on her hips and lifting her up easily.

“Oh, wow. Did you do all this yourself? Max, this is amazing,” she said, crawling across the foam mattress to get to the pillows and blankets I’d set up for us.

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