Page 78 of The Bad Wedding Date

She climbed into the passenger seat without saying a word, leaving me to start up the engine while she locked her seatbelt in place.

“You okay?” I asked when she stared straight ahead, looking out of the windscreen, her face murderous.

“Just do whatever it is you came here to do.”

I bit back my laughter. “Are you mad at me?”

“A little.”

“Okay.” I smirked, not asking for an explanation, knowing she’d probably give me one anyway.

“Don’t you want to know why?”

“Not real—”

“I’ve known you for all of thirty-six hours, Fraser, and you’re already turning my world upside down and back to front. I don’t usually give people that much power over me, and I don’t like it. It makes me uncomfortable.”

There it was.

“I didn’t mean to get you involved to this extent,” I said, meaning every word of that. I hadn’t. I still knew I had to put the brakes on at some point to save her. I just couldn’t stop myself from doing that right now, and I’d not even touched her in a tenth of the places I wanted to touch her yet.

“Yes, you did. That’s exactly what you planned, and that’s why I’m involved. That’s why I’m here, isn’t it?” She turned to me, her eyes somewhat sad, maybe even afraid. “Because of you.”

I sat back in my seat, my wrist resting over the steering wheel. “I’m not sorry for doing it if it keeps you safe in the end, but there’s more to all of this than just that.”

“Like?”

“Maybe I just really like you and wanted to see you again.”

Charlotte hitched in a breath, her shoulders rising.

I couldn’t work out if that was a good or bad response.

“But don’t worry,” I said, leaning forward and putting the car in gear. “If there’s one thing you can be certain about, it’s that I won’t ever do anything to a woman until she asks me to. Maybe even begs a little.”

Before she could say anything in response, I hit the accelerator, taking us down roads I wasn’t sure either of us were ready to explore

25

Charlotte

The idea of me begging him for more didn’t seem so strange after the night I’d had daydreaming about that kiss on my bed. He’d made me feel so much with nothing more than his mouth against mine. I couldn’t imagine what else he’d be able to do with his hands and his tongue on other places. It had been those thoughts that had driven me to phone him and tell him about Penn, and that annoyed me.

I annoyed myself.

Who was I now? A woman who played like a damsel in distress just to hear a man’s voice. That wasn’t me. That was Emmie. The thought of being like her had turned me colder than ice while waiting to finish my shift, and now Fraser was getting the brunt of that frost.

“Where do you want to go?” he asked far too nicely after the way I’d just spoken to him.

“I didn’t realise I got to choose.”

“Consider it a gift.” He glanced out of the driver’s window before he faced forward again. “If you could go anywhere right now, where would it be?”

“Anywhere?” I raised a brow.

He turned to me. “That’s what I’m asking.”

“I’d find somewhere with a pool so I could swim.”

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