Page 80 of The Mating Game
“See?” she says sweetly. “You’re not so bad.”
“Only with you, apparently,” I answer quietly.
Her smile really does do something wicked to my insides, and Irealize that it has nothing to do with the ways I’ve had her, or even the ways I haven’t yet. No, I’m realizing that when Tess smiles…it almost feels like things might be all right in my world. Which is insane given that I’ve only known her a few weeks.
“So, I’m curious,” she prods. “Why did you decide to come? Really?”
That’s not an easy question to answer. It involves me going back and forth a million times—imagining all the people who might make her laugh, all the ones who might touch her and dance with her—and recognizing that I hated the idea of any of them not being me.
But I can’t tell her that. Not without sounding like I’ve lost it.
“I didn’t thank you earlier,” I say instead. “For calling your friend. I probably seemed ungrateful.”
“I was thinking maybe you thought I needed to mind my own business,” she admits.
I shake my head, not wanting her to feel that way at all. “No. It was…really amazing of you to do that for me.” I clear my throat, feeling embarrassed. “I mean, for the lodge.”
“Right,” she answers back with a smile. “For the lodge.”
“Plus, it seemed dangerous, leaving you to fend for yourself at this rowdy old bar when you’re dressed like that.”
“Oh? When I’m dressed like this?” She bats her eyelashes playfully up at me. “You flirting with me, Mr.Barrett?”
That makes me chuckle because: “I don’t think I would know how to even if I wanted to.”
“Kind of sounds like you’re doing a pretty good job of it right now,” she says, shrugging one shoulder.
“I think you’re kind of drunk,” I laugh.
“Oh yeah?” Her smile turns Cheshire-like. “You know what I think?”
Her eyes crinkle at the corners, her scent blooms around us so sweetly, it makes me dizzy despite the ebbing of my buzz, and she looks downrightsinfulwhen she says, “I think…you kind of want to kiss me.”
Holy hell, I think, the last rational part of my brain watching as if from a distance.Tipsy Tess is bold as hell.
But I do, I realize. Terribly. It’s something I haven’t done, even with all the ways I’ve touched her, and I’m just now realizing how much of a travesty that is. Especially given that her mouth looks soft and plump, like it’s begging for the imprint of my teeth. I get flashes of images—I see her fingers in my hair and my tongue teasing hers—and I want it so badly at this moment that it feels like a tangible thing, my need.
Maybe it’s naivete on my part, the way I’m completely ignoring the distant alarms blaring in my head about the dangers of being so close to her like this, understanding it could trigger another mini heat—but for some reason, I can’t find it in me to worry right now. Maybe it’s because I’m aware that if it happens, I’ll be here to take care of her. That I’m theonlyone who gets to take care of her like that. It’s a heady thing to realize.
All I know is that her eyes seem bigger and brighter when she looks up at me under the pulsing lights, that my hands on her waist make my palms burn as if I’m touching her skin directly, and most importantly, that her mouth looks sosoft. I watch as she starts to press up on her toes gently, and I know I could let her, that her lips on mine would be a revelation I might not recover from—but something holds me back.
Not like this, I think.
“I’d better get you home,” I say abruptly, startling her.
Her lashes flutter, not quite processing what I’ve said at first.
She rears back in confusion. “What?”
I can’t look at her now; my eyes are scanning the room for Jarred and Cat, then I signal them over. “It’s getting late. There’s supposed to be a storm this weekend. We should leave before the snow gets bad. Plus, I caught Thomas on the way in. The three of them are moving to a private party at some girl’s house. I told them I would make sure you get home.”
“I—What? Wait, it feels like you just got here!”
But I’m already pulling her by the hand across the dance floor, finding my friends to offer our goodbyes, watching a dazed Tess accept a hug from Cat.
“This was so fun!” Cat squeezes her tight. “Don’t you leave without seeing me again!”
She manages to smile even though she still looks a bit bewildered, and who could blame her? I feel sober now; my brain is whirring instead with how much of an idiot I must be, turning her down like that—but between her being so buzzed and my own insecurities about what that kiss might do to me, what it might mean…I feel myself devolving into bit of a mess.
