Page 23 of Ready or Not
“I wanna have your consent before I…” his voice trailed off. His hands stayed steady as his eyes scanned my face. “We just met hours ago and...”
I nodded. “We did.”
“I don’t wanna rush you,” he exhaled. “It doesn’t mean I don’t want you—hell, it couldn’t be clearer how much I do—but I wanna know... I needa know you’re good with this.”
My chest constricted at his words, his vulnerability carving a space in my heart I wasn’t ready to admit existed.
Desi was unlike anyone I’d met before.
Though he was the first man I’ve gone anotherdatewith outside of my ex, his hesitation reminded me of a care I hadn’t known I longed for. Everything about this man was pure intention—something I craved yet never got the opportunity to experience.
He paid attention to the little things, he valued my opinions all the while… And now, here he was, with me sitting on his lap, waiting for an answer. He could’ve easily kept going, peeling away my resolve like the layers of an onion, but he didn’t.
Instead, he chose to ask, to reassure me that my choice mattered.
This was the kind of conscientiousness that made my heart ache in the best way.
Boy, was I falling…hard.
Because how could I not fall for someone like him? Someone who looked at me like I was the only woman in the world and treated me with so much respect and patience I didn’t know I was capable of receiving.
However, I had to remind myself that I had no clue where the night would end.
It didn’t matter how much I felt myself slipping into him, I was still faced with the unknown. Desi was here now—yes—but he wasn’t forever. Not when we haven’t even discussed how we plan to move forward from tonight. Not when I had no idea what he really wanted from this, or if he even thought there was a future for us beyond this fleeting, magnetic connection.
For all I knew, this could just be a perfect moment in an imperfect world—one of those memories you hold onto when the nights are too quiet and too long.
So I had to accept tonight as alive-in-the-momentkind of thing. I wasn’t going to ruin it by asking what might come next.
That would be a worry for when our time ended.
His voice broke through my thoughts. “What’re you thinking?”
I bit my lip, however, he removed one of his hands from under my shirt, using his thumb to gently tug my lip free before it went back to its resting place.
“Don’t do that. I want to know what you’re thinking,” he urged. “If you’re not okay with this, we can stop?—”
“I’m good,” I said softly, my fingers still tangled gently in his hair. “I want this, too.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah…”
His exhale trembled against my cheek, and for a brief moment, his eyes closed as though he was trying to absorb my reply. When he opened them again, they were darker somehow, deeper, like whatever restraint he had been holding onto had loosened its grip.
“Good,” he rasped, planting a quick kiss on my lips before pulling away to stare at me. “I need you to tell me if it ever changes.”
I ignored the way my heart hammered against my ribcage, leaning in again to brush my lips against his, but he shook his head.
“Promise me, Solène,” he whispered my name like a prayer, and it sent a shiver down my spine. “Promise me you’ll tell me if it ever becomes too much.”
“I promise.”
“Okay then,” he murmured, his lips curling into a faint smile as his thumb traced slow circles against my waist. “Then let me take my time with you.”
12 /SOLÈNE
He moved slowlylike he was savoring every second.
