Page 98 of Hound Dog
With a flick of his finger, he hit the light switch, and shockingly, the room illuminated with several overhead lights.
He must have noticed my stunned expression because, as he set the cooler down in the kitchen, he asked, “What?”
“I just didn’t expect this place to have electricity. It looks a little more like the ‘eat by candlelight’ sort of house fromEvil Dead.”
“This cabin was my dad’s,” he said.
I winced, immediately regretting every harsh word I’d just said about the place. “Shit. I’m sorry, Finn.”
“It’s okay,” he said through a chuckle. “Just like the rooftop years ago, I didn’t stop to think how a cabin like this might be intimidating to a woman on a first date. In my head, I just thought it’d be romantic. And for your birthday, I wanted to take you somewhere that I’ve never taken anyone. Somewhere special. It didn’t even occur to me this might make you uncomfortable. I’m sorry.”
He started packing the stuff back into cooler. It wasn’t petulant or angry. In fact, he even smiled at me as he did it. “Let’s go to Greico’s instead. The gnocchi there is—”
“No,” I said, my heart swelling. “I’m not uncomfortable. Not because ofyou. If this was a real first date where I didn’t know you yet or we’d just met yesterday, then yeah, it might be a little scary. But my comment wasn’t about you—it was more of an admission that I tend to let my horror movie imagination get away with me.”
I crossed to him and placed my hand over his. “Let’s eat here. Please.”
He grimaced. “Okay, but that makes the second half of what I’d planned for the date super awkward.”
My mind immediately flew to Finn’s bare chest and the kiss we’d shared the other day in the guest house. But instead, he pulled out a DVD ofFriday the 13thfrom his bag and cringed. “I’m thinking post-dinner scary movie night was probably a bad idea?”
My heart jumped in my chest. For a guy I’d only been hanging out with for a few weeks, Finn knew me so well. He paid attention. And not just when something was in it for him. He’d paid attention even before he ever thought we could be together.
Pushing onto my toes, I pressed my lips to his. Our kiss began tenderly, until he dropped the container of food on the counter and wrapped his arms around my waist. I opened my mouth as his tongue slid against mine, in slow, unhurried strokes.
He tasted so good. So damn good. Like dark chocolate and sunshine.
We separated, pulling our mouths away briefly. “I thought you were hungry,” he said.
“I am… I was…”
I took his hand and tugged him down the hall where I assumed there would be a bedroom.
Because suddenly, I was an entirely different kind of hungry.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Finn
I’ve kisseda lot of girls in my life.
Probably over a hundred.
Seriously, that’s not even an exaggeration. It’s not something I’m proud of… well, not anymore.
But kissing Haylee trumped every one of those women. Every one of those kisses.
In that moment, I was so glad that we hadn’t had sex six years ago because it was worth every second that we’d waited.
As soon as we made it to the bedroom, I hoisted her up from the backs of her thighs and she locked her legs around my waist. Even though the bed was right there, I stumbled to the wall, pressing her back against it and thrusting between her legs.
Her groan was sensual, long and deep, and vibrated against my tongue.
Unhooking her ankles from my lower back, she slid down my body, achingly slow, until her feet touched the floor.
Breaking apart momentarily from our kiss, she yanked my shirt overhead and tossed it aside. Her mouth slammed back onto mine while her fingers dug into the waistband of my shorts, impatiently trying to unbutton them.
“Easy,” I whispered, pulling away from her lips. “Slow down, Haylee. I’m not going anywhere.”
