Page 37 of Waiting Forever
Her scent swirls in my nose, tempting me, along with everything else about her.
Without thought, I run the tip of my nose down her neck from her ear to her collarbone. It’s cool out, but her soft skin feels warm.
Her breathing turns fast and shallow, her chest heaving beneath my gaze. Fuck me. What am I doing?
“Sorry.” I straighten and turn the hot dogs again. “Shit. They’re burning. Can you get me a clean plate?”
She hesitates.
I don’t dare look at her, afraid of what I’ll see on her face. Shock? Anger?Desire?
Finally, she scrambles toward the table and hurries back with another plate.
“Thanks.” I take it and transfer the hot dogs. “I hope you like them well done.”
“I don’t mind.” She returns to the table, setting two places with napkins, plates, and the beers I brought out for myself.
“The Coke is for you.” I set the plate of hot dogs between us and take a seat beside her.
“Thanks, but I’m in the mood for a beer. And don’t bother pointing out I’m not twenty-one yet. You’ll just be wasting your breath. Besides, I’ve had beer plenty of times before this, although I prefer rum.”
“Rum?”
“And Coke.” She sets a bun on each of our plates and sandwiches a hot dog between my bun and then hers.
“Where’d you drink?” I squirt brown mustard on my dog.
She shoots me a look that says,duh.“Parties. Friends’ houses. Cars.”
“You were drinking while driving?” Who is this girl?
She cracks up. “You should see your face right now. Seriously, you’re worse than my dad.”
“Speaking of your dad, does he know you were drinking while driving?”
She takes a big bite of her hot dog, just like when she was younger. I adore her for how comfortable she is eating around me. Girls can be so weird about stuff like that. She finishes chewing and then responds. “I didn’t say I was driving. I was in the backseat, drinking and making out with my boyfriend. And, no, my dad doesn’t know. I didn’t have a death wish—neither did my boyfriend. I did, however, have a life.”
Too many things hit my brain at once. She was drinking and making out. That’s worse than if she were drinking and driving. And who the hell was this guy taking advantage of her in the backseat of a vehicle? Boyfriend or not, I’ll still kill him. Did she ever drink or make out with her boyfriend or any other guy while wearing that bikini? My last thought filters out of my mouth. “How did your dadnotknow any of this?”
Surveillance is his specialty, for Christ’s sake. Tailing his daughter would have been easy.
Kensington licks a smear of mustard from the corner of her mouth. “I was good at being sneaky. I learned from the best.” She winks, looking cute and sexy at the same time.
Aw, hell. Everything about her is a temptation.
“Remember when we snuck out of the lodge that one year at Lake Tahoe and climbed up the old fire tower so I could watch for a shooting star?” She smiles as if lost in the memory.
I had forgotten about that until now. I reach for another hot dog, my first one devoured already. “How old were we?”
“I was twelve, so you were fifteen.”
“So long ago.”
Her smile widens and a mischievous glint shines in her eyes. “I was going to kiss you that night. I wanted you to be my first. Had it planned out.”
“Yeah?” I wouldn’t be more shocked if a coconut fell from the sky and landed on my head. “What happened?”
She pushes her plate away and tucks her chin. “I chickened out.”
