Page 101 of All The Happily Ever Afters

With the heat climbing in the cabin, no matter that our windows are both open, I pull up in her drive and park the truck.“You like hanging out with me?” she asks, a hint of reverence playing in the sweet cadence of her question.

I can only nod, my grip slipping slightly on the wheel as my palms turn sweaty.

“I like the way you look at me,” I push her gently, calling her out and finally being a man when it comes to her and what’s between us.

“I look at people, yeah,” she tries to play it off.

“You blush the same way too? When you look at other people.”

I’m only given a deeper hue of red as she sits in that seat, biting down on her lip. A lip I’d like to suck while my hand roams between her legs. I have to shift in my seat and I notice she squirms in hers too.

The crickets and nightlife are the only backdrop as I turn the keys in the ignition and let the silence take over.

“You don’t make me blush, Cade,” she lies and then stares out her window to correct herself. “Well... you make all the girls blush so it’s not the same.”

“I don’t notice it with other women. I don’t notice anything about them.”

“Now you’re just trying to prove a point and make me blush,” she accuses.

“Tell me you didn’t look at me different from the other guys?” Damn, it’s odd how much thinking that’s a possibility hurts. The pain vanishes the second Shar looks up at me with wide eyes.

“I feel like you always did,” I admit.

Her breathing is shallow and her lips slightly parted.

“Do you want to come in?” is all she says, her fingers digging into the leather of the seat beneath her, as if she has to cling to it to keep her seated there.

“And why do you want me to come in Shar?” I don’t know why I tease her, why I prolong the tension, other than that I need her to admit it too.

“Because I don’t want to be alone tonight?”

“You answered that like you were asking another question.”

Her gaze drops and insecurity flashes in her gorgeous eyes.

“Come on, Shar. Tell me the truth. Tell me all of this isn’t in my head and something I just made up.”

My heart rages against my chest and my pulse races, waiting for her to answer.

She shakes her head gently, swallowing first, and then admitting, “If you mean the fact that I’ve wanted you for years and that I’ve dreamt what could have happened that night a year ago… then no. It’s not in your head.”

“Then, yeah, I want to come in.”

SHARON

His lips were on me so fast, his hands on my waist, pinning me against his truck. The only reason my eyes aren’t closed as he devours me is because I need to see it, to know I’m sane, and that this all isn’t a dream.

Cade Jameson, the boy who stole my heart in high school and left with it for years is back a man, demanding the very thing I’ve wanted since I first laid eyes on him.

With his large hands at my hips, his lips drifting down my neck and the chill of the autumn night air leaving goosebumps along my exposed skin, I can barely breathe, let alone believe this is real.

It’s the site of my neighbor, Miss Clare Jane peeking through her blinds that snaps me out of the haze.

All hot and bothered, I’d feel shame if I wasn’t living out a fantasy I’d trade all my modesty for in a heartbeat.

“Cade, inside,” I whisper at the same time he rakes his teeth up my neck and smiles at the shell of my ear.

He whispers, “You have no idea how long I’ve dreamed about doing just this.” His grip on me loosens and with a gentle hand in mine, helping me find my balance, he leaves a kiss just beneathmy ear and adds, “But I was more of a brute than a gentleman in those dreams, Shar.”

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