Page 46 of Love You Always

“I’ll come.”

“I was hoping you’d say that,” I whisper when she walks past me to my truck. It earns me a smile and I tuck it away like a gold star.

Ella insists on sitting in the back seat while I drive the quick two miles to Carla’s and then to Alicia’s apartment. “It’s on the border of Calistoga,” she tells Ella.

“Never been there.”

“Really? Oh, well, I guess that makes sense. Lotta locals hang there. Tourists mostly want to see downtown Napa or St. Helena. The more chichi places with the cute shops and restaurants.”

I worry that Ella may take offense to the assumption that she’s a fancy tourist, but she doesn’t skip a beat. “Sounds like I’d like Calistoga.”

I meet her eyes in the rearview mirror, hoping she can see my smile.

A few minutes later, Alicia gives me a wet kiss on the cheek and waves at Ella. “Thanks again.” She saunters up the walkway of her apartment building with her shoes slung over her shoulder. A second after that, the passenger door opens and Ella slides onto the bench seat next to me.

“Where to, cowboy?” she asks, pulling the seat belt across her body. I unsnap it just as fast. She looks at me quizzingly, but I put one arm around her shoulders and haul her to my side. The warmth of her body ignites something deep within me, an ember that’s been smoldering since I first laid eyes on her that day in the old brown barn. Now there’s no chance of extinguishing out that flame. It’s already consuming everything in its wake.

She takes a quick look around, but there’s no one on the street at this early hour. We’re safe from cell phone cameras. Then shegazes up at me, jaw slack, eyes hungry. Her tongue slips out to lick her bottom lip.

My cock jumps in my pants, instantly hard like it was when she showed up in my driveway this morning. It’s taken all my self-control to wage war against it, and now I’m fucking done.

Turning in my seat, I face her more squarely, my eyes roaming over her face, my brain firing off a hailstorm of ideas about where to kiss her first, which part of her skin to taste. I shut all that down and focus on her lips. They’re parted slightly. Pale pink. Wet.

I cup her jaw in my palm, finally emboldened to take what I’ve been denying myself for weeks.

Brushing my thumb across her cheek, I feel her face sink into my hand. I feel her heart beating beneath the surface. Her quiet sigh.

My hands are rough against her smooth skin. It’s a warning. This is her chance to reject the farmer, the guy from the small town, the man who isn’t her fiancé, even if he’s proven himself barely a man. But she only moves closer to me, one bent leg sweeping across my lap to drape over me. I pull her in tighter, one hand firm against her back, showing her exactly how unwilling I am to let her go. One hand still tracing the graceful lines of her face, wanting to be gentle with her until she screams for something else.

She watches me, waiting to see where this will lead. I get it—even if Callum cheated, she’s still engaged—she can’t be the one to make the first move.

Fine by me.

I tip my head to her forehead, taking a moment to inhale the scent of her, all floral and citrus and fucking perfection. Her breath is choppy and shallow, and I want to steal all of it.

As my finger trails over the apple of one cheek, I memorize every curve. Every inch of her heart-shaped face.

When I bring my lips to hers, it’s just a whisper. A promise ofwhat I’ll give her if she’ll let me. I can barely stand to limit myself to just a gentle brush, but I’ve spent too many nights thinking about this moment to rush it.

“Princess,” I rasp against her lips. “Just say the word and I’ll stop.”

It’ll take every bit of self-control to do what I’ve just promised, but up until last night, she thought she was marrying another man. I don’t want to take advantage of her vulnerability, don’t want her to do anything she’ll regret.

“I want the opposite of stop,” she breathes. “I want it all.”

It’s all the permission I need.

I keep things slow, warming her up, guiding her to trust me, daring her to want me as much as I’m desperate for her. Guiding her into a kiss that I want more than anything in the world.

She responds in kind, deepening the kiss, pressing her body into me. Tracing her bottom lip with my tongue, I delve deeper. Her lips open and our tongues find each other. Desperate. Seeking. Satisfying beyond anything I could’ve imagined.

The heat in my truck blasts into the triple digits as our kiss goes on and on. Her quiet sighs and moans grow louder, and her hands roam over my shoulders and back before coming to the nape of my neck and pushing into my hair.

We deepen the kiss until I can’t tell where each of us begins or ends. It goes on and on. Day turns into night, for all I know. What’s certain is that I’m exactly where I want to be for maybe the first time in my life.

Briefly breaking the kiss, we stare at each other in disbelief. “God, Archer. If I’d known this was how it felt to kiss you, I’d have done it the first day we met.”

This. This is how people fall in love.

---