Page 138 of Wild Catch
“When should I ask? In a year?” He turns back to watch the game but apparently is still pondering the topic. “Which type of gold do you like best? I assume you’ll want a purple stone.”
“Stop.” I’m still giggling up a storm when I smack his knee, connecting with the bare skin beyond his shorts. Logan grabs my hand and keeps it there, lacing his fingers between mine.
The memory of us doing this for the first time hits me, but it was in the back of Cade’s pickup and done as an experiment.
Now it’s real, and I have no doubt that my hand will be in his for a long, long time. Maybe one day with a purple rock on it.
CHAPTER46
LOGAN
“So, I’ve noticed something.”
“Hmm?” I turn to Rose, since we’re stopped at the world’s longest red light just at the entrance of New Smyrna, where Rose’s mother lives.
Our hands are linked but she has my arm extended almost over her, and with her free hand she traces the lines of my rose tattoos. She already has the full story of what my tats mean to me—though she has no idea that a Rosalina Mena tattoo is in development—but this is the first time she actively tries to map them. It raises goosebumps all over my skin and I do nothing about it. It’s not like she doesn’t know I have the hots for her.
“First, you usually drive a motorbike. Second, you drive with the top off. Is it a pattern or am I reading too much into it?”
I tense as her finger leaves the ink to trace a vein on the inside of my arm. Now we’re moving toward electric shock territory, rather than just measly goosebumps.
“I love driving with the top off.” I pointedly look at her—more specifically, at her chest proudly on display in a bikini top themed with the American flag. We’re on our way to spend July 4that the beach with her mom, and there’s nothing more American than driving a convertible and wearing only bathing suits to celebrate this great nation. Yee and haw.
Especially because she’s freaking gorgeous. All that brown skin gleaming under the sun, those curves, that softness and?—
She cuts off my very dangerous train of thought but makes it worse, because she cocks an eyebrow and looks at my stomach. “Trust me, I’m really enjoying it too.”
Ah, yes. I’m also shirtless.
I run my left hand over my abs and she bites her lip.
The only reason why neither of us lose our minds right here and now is because the light turns green. Sighing, I focus back on the road.
Rose clears her throat. “Anyway, that’s not what I mean and you know it.”
She lowers my arm to her lap, gifting me a scorching brush against her bare abdomen, and it takes me a hot second to find my wits again. I’m pretty sure I’m only able to sober up because she’s asking about something kinda gnarly about my life, and I’m not going to hold it from her. I’m a full open book now.
“There’s a reason,” I start, allowing my brain some time to find the best way to explain this. I turn us into a street with old houses surrounded by palm trees. “When I was a kid, I used to hide in closets so I could escape the drama between my parents or from Lewis and his games. Until one day he discovered what I was up to and locked me up for a whole weekend.”
She gasps.
“So, I’m claustrophobic.” I shrug, stopping at yet another red light and facing her again. “I panic in small spaces or when I’m surrounded by a lot of people. Enclosed vehicles feel like closets to me, I can’t stand them for long.”
“Wait.” Something clicks in her brain. “Does ginger ale make it better?”
I startle a little, but it shouldn’t surprise me that she made that connection. “Fizzy drinks force my throat to open up when I’m in the very beginnings of an attack. Strong menthol candies work too.”
“Making a mental note to always carry some Halls with me,” she says, hugging my arm against her like it’s a precious stuffed toy.
“You know how else you could help me in those cases?”
“How?” she asks right away.
“By sticking your tongue down my throat.”
“Logan!”
I chuckle and the line of cars starts moving, so I set us in motion again. The GPS says that we’re just two minutes from the building where her mom lives, two blocks away from the beach.
