Page 33 of Attached At Heart
“Yeah, well…” I shrugged. “Before we tied the knot, I didn’t know you were going to kiss me like that.”
Blake went momentarily still before he swung one arm behind my seat and single-handedly backed out of the parking spot. Humidity flooded the car—a sweltering heat that I would have blamed on East Coast summers…except it was only spring.
I leaned forward to turn on the air-conditioning.
“Kissed you like what?” Blake asked once we were situated on the road. There was a light, teasing quality to the question that I recognized.
“Like—” I bit down on my tongue, forcing myself to filter my thoughts for once.
Like you wanted to kiss me.
Like you wanted to domorethan kiss me.
Blake cleared his throat and took pity on me, not forcing me to finish my sentence.
Or maybe he realized what I was going to say and didn’t want to confirm or deny it.
Either way, my silence was for the best.
“So you want to have ground rules about what? Kissing?” he prompted, sounding suddenly serious. His eyes landed on mine for just a moment, grounding me with his sincerity, before theyflicked back to the road. “I won’t do it again if you don’t want me to, Lane.”
Oh, God. And now he thought I wasupsetabout the kiss.
WasI upset about the kiss?
It certainly would have made things easier if he hadn’t kissed me, so maybe I was upset about the circumstancessurroundingthe kiss. But the kiss itself?
No, I wasn’t mad about that.
I shook my head. “Not just about kissing. Ground rules about what we’re both comfortable with, I guess. When we have to fake things over the next year.”
Blake swallowed. A crease deepened between his brows before he finally asked, “Did I make you uncomfortable?”
“No,” I groaned, dropping my head into my hands to hide for a second. I was starting to wish I hadn’t brought this up, but it seemed important. Especially considering how we were going to have to spend the night trying to convince his siblings that this marriage was real. And there were four of them. Four people who knew Blake better than anyone.
“Delaney…” Blake urged softly when I still hadn’t emerged from my hiding spot in my hands.
I sighed and lifted my head. “No,” I repeated. Clearly, so he wouldn’t misunderstand. “You didn’t make me uncomfortable. I just think we should be, I don’t know, on the same page about that sort of thing.”
He nodded slowly, like the words were coming into his head at a slower pace than I was saying them. “I agree,” he concluded. “Tell me what you’re comfortable with, then.”
I shifted in my seat, for some reason taken aback he’d asked me for specifics when in reality, it was a perfectly sensible follow-up question. But it wasn’t that I was uncomfortable with anything he had done or likely would do. He hadsurprisedme.Confusedme.Shockedme to my fucking core.
“Can I hold your hand?” he prompted when I didn’t say anything, and I couldn’t help but laugh because of the sheer ridiculousness of this conversation. Blake had held my hand a number of times. Waiting for exam results. An encouraging squeeze at the end of a long shift. A steadying touch when he could sense I was about to lose my balance. But now, because of two little rings on our fingers, we were overthinking everything.
Or maybe it was just me.
When I looked over at Blake, his expression was just as serious as the last time I’d checked.
“Yes, you can hold my hand,” I answered because he seemed to be waiting.
He gave a perfunctory nod. “I want to know what you feel okay with, Lane. And I’m just starting at the bottom and working my way to the top.”
I couldn’t fault him for that or for what he was trying to do. I’d asked for it, after all. But that didn’t mean I knew what to say except for, “What’s at the top?”
I immediately regretted asking the question. Especially when Blake’s gaze momentarily met mine in the rearview mirror, and I couldn’t understand the look in them. All I knew was that it made me cross one leg over the other and clear my throat as I waited for his reply.
“Whatever you want to be at the top,” he said, his lips twitching before his gaze darted away from mine, focusing out the window instead.
