Page 16 of Blurred Love

I bring my hands up to cup her face. I look into her eyes, searching for any sign that she doesn’t want this, but she surprises me by stretching her body against mine. “Kiss me, Colter.”

I slam my mouth against hers. I should give her a quick peck, just a simple kiss to give her what she wants, but as soon as our lips touch, there’s no holding back.

I lean into her, tilt her head to the side to deepen the kiss, and slide my tongue along hers. The sound of her whimper has me kissing her deeper, devouring her until there’s no breath left inside me.

I don’t want to stop, but I don’t have a choice. I pull away, but I don’t want to go far, so I let my forehead rest against hers. I’m trying to process everything that just happened, and I’m still trying to make sense of it when she disentangles herself from my arms and takes a step back.

The way she’s looking at me makes me want to throw her over my shoulder and carry her inside her apartment to finish what we just started.

But before I can reach for her, she steps to the side and gets into the passenger side of my truck. She’s looking at me expectantly, and I move closer to her. I run my hand through the scruff of my chin. “I have reservations. We’re going to be late.”

She smiles up at me. “So I guess you want to go on this date then.”

I can’t stop the smile from forming on my face. “Yes, I want to go on a date with you.” I leave out the part about everything else I want to do with her.

I lean into my truck, grab the seat belt, and pull it around her to buckle her in. She sucks in a breath. We’re almost nose to nose, and I’d give anything to kiss her again.

From the way she’s looking at me, she wants it too.

I brush my thumb across her cheek. “Just so we’re clear, I want to kiss you again, but if I do, we won’t make our reservation, and I want to take you to dinner.”

She smiles at me, and her voice is a whisper. “You can kiss me when we get there if you want to.”

I groan, thinking that I can just kiss her when I want to. I force myself to pull back, and after making sure she’s inside, I shut her door and then walk around to the driver’s side.

She’s turned her body toward me as I drive us to the restaurant. Her gaze on me makes me hot. She puts her hand on the console between us. “So where are you taking me in Whiskey Run that you had to make a reservation?”

I glance over at her. “The Peddler.”

At that exact moment, her stomach growls, and when she laughs, I laugh with her.

“I guess that makes you happy.”

She puts one hand on her belly. “Yes, I’ve never eaten there. I’m excited.” She leans toward me. “Can I ask you a question, Colter? It’s a personal one, and if you don’t want to answer, you don’t have to.”

I grip the steering wheel a little tighter. “Yeah, you can ask me.”

She nods. “Okay. Well, I noticed sometimes you have trouble forming words, and?—“

I cut her off. “Stutter. Sometimes, I stutter.”

She flinches at the tone of my voice, and I have to remind myself that she’s not trying to be mean by asking me this question. She’s curious, and I can’t say I blame her.

She reaches over and puts a hand on my arm. “What I’m saying is that I’ve noticed that sometimes you do it and sometimes you don’t.”

I nod. “Yeah, I do.”

“Yeah, well, I’m just wondering why? Is it because of me? Do I make you nervous?”

I suck in a breath and let it out slowly. “It’s not that, really. It’s me. I’m the problem.”

She rolls her eyes. “I don’t believe that.”

When we roll up on a stop sign, I sneak a peek at her. She’s looking at me expectantly but without judgment on her face. “My therapist says that my stutter is more about what’s going on in my head than anything. And I know she’s right. I’ve noticed if I’m nervous or something, I get caught up in my head and seem to focus on my speech, and that seems to make it worse. The less I think about it, the less I stutter.”

She nods. “So when you were beating up Adam and yelling at him, you weren’t worried at all about your stutter.”

I laugh. “No, I was just trying to make sure I didn’t kill him.”

---