Page 68 of Dare Me

They were on a little two-lane road with no shoulder and pretty much nothing but farmland, so when he pulled over, her first thought was that there was something wrong with the car.

“Is everything okay?”

Will threw the car into park before turning and cupping her face in his hands and kissing her.

Oh…oh…

There was zero finesse and Arianna was certain her lipstick was pretty much all over the place, but it was worth it. The intensity that they were pouring into this was almost brutal, and she loved every second of it.

Will lifted his head a moment later and swallowed hard. “Say it again,” he gruffly commanded.

“I love you.”

With a curt nod, he kissed her again, gentler this time, but it was like she could feel everything he was feeling and now she desperately wanted to hear the words from him.

The next time he broke the kiss and lifted his head, his gorgeous blue eyes searched hers as he said, “I love you too.”

Her heart felt like it was going to burst, and she wanted to crawl across the console and do all kinds of naughty things with him. Licking her lips, she said, “Maybe we should turn this car around and go home. We can order Chinese food and make love and just keep saying those three little words to each other all night. What do you think?”

Grinning, he gave her a light kiss. “As good as that sounds, I want to take you out on a proper date where we eat good food and drink expensive wine while gazing at each other and saying those three words. Then we’ll order a decadent dessert and perhaps a bottle of wine to take home and eat in bed.”

“Ooh…I like your version better. Kind of,” she teased as they both straightened in their seats. Will pulled back onto the road and it didn’t seem like words were necessary. Right now, she knew she was basking in the glow of their admission and hoped he was too.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t good with prolonged silence and felt the need to start chatting again.

“Liam texted me earlier.”

Will looked over at her. “O-kay…”

“Liam never texts me.” Then she paused. “Although I guess I really can’t say that because he’s been in the military for so long that it’s not like he had a lot of time to sit around and text, right?”

“Basically.”

“Anyway, he’s going to take me to lunch on Monday. Just the two of us,” she said happily. “I’m not sure why, but I am thoroughly delighted. We haven’t had a lot of time to really sitand catch up, so…” Then she paused. “Wait. Do you know why he wants to hang out with me?”

Shaking his head, he replied, “No idea. I think he’s just really trying to reconnect with everyone and it looks like the two of you haven’t really crossed paths too much after the whole apartment thing.”

“That’s what I was thinking, but I wanted to make sure there wasn’t something more nefarious about it.”

“Nefarious? Really?”

“Trust me, when it comes to overprotective siblings, I’ve learned to expect the unexpected.”

“Okay, as much as I’m mildly curious about all that, how about we make date night another Donovan-free zone?”

That struck her as hilarious. “At this rate, we’ll never be able to talk about them!”

Although…it wouldn’t be the worst idea…

“How about this,” he suggested, “only when absolutely necessary.”

“I can live with that.”

“Good, because there are at least a dozen other things I’d rather talk to you about tonight.”

“Oh, yeah?” she hummed. “Like what?”

“Like how beautiful you look and how much I love looking at you.”

---