Page 57 of After Tonight

“Maybe.”

“But that’s important to you.”

He looked down at her. “Yeah. That’s one thing that’s important to me.”

Oh, boy. They didn’t even need to actually talk about anything for this to be complicated.

“You’ll have to cook the pizzas in the oven at the bar for them to taste right.”

He nodded.

“So eventually, we’ll end up there.”

“Eventually.”

“Okay.” She took a breath. “But let’s not go straight over there.”

“Where do you want to go instead?”

That was a no-brainer. The warmth and affection contributed to her feeling horny. But a second later she corrected that. It wasn’t horny. Exactly. She just wanted to be close to him. As close as she could get. “Somewhere where no one will look for us. And that we can be naked for a while.”

His gaze heated and he nodded. But he didn’t seem completely surprised. “I really do like it when you’re blunt.”

Yeah, he’d even told her mom that.

And Riley wanted to climb on top of him and lose herself in pleasure with a guy who not only really knew her, but appreciated some of her more annoying characteristics.

They drove out to the river. She knew that’s where he was headed the minute he turned out of town. And it was the perfect choice. No one would look for them to be there together, alone.

Once they had bumped over the narrow dirt road that led down to the river, he turned east and continued along the bank for a few hundred feet. The dirt road ended at the best place to park and carry coolers down to the sand right along the edge of the river. It was the most popular party spot. It was also a spot that was likely to have other visitors at some time tonight. Instead, Derek turned and drove over the grass, heading west, and parked two football-field lengths away. He backed the truck up to the edge of the short bluff that overlooked the river and killed the engine.

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