Page 48 of Moon Shot

“I think I’m falling in love with her,” I giggled, “and I know that sounds weird. Who the hell plays spin the bottle and seven minutes in heaven as a grown ass woman?”

Rowan playfully lifted his eyebrows. “I knew we’d need more than thirty minutes.”

My heart went straight to my stomach, knowing the pulsing tingle of need for him could only be relieved one way. But it’d have to wait. “Do you want to come over for dinner tonight? I feel like there’s so much I want to spoil you with and fix.”

“There’s nothing to fix,” I assured him, standing next to him. I moved to press myself against him, hoping I could just absorb the memory of his muscles beneath me and his warmth surrounding me. “Dinner sounds great. What should I bring?”

“Just an overnight bag.” Rowan winked, reaching to hold my face in his hands as he pressed his lips to mine. His kiss was a lethal intoxicant, making me dizzy and giddy at the same time.

When he changed into his clothes from last night, the outfit he wore to Aubrey and Ethan’s party, I wondered more about what brought us to the point in their guest bedroom. The moment that lead us here, to my apartment, where we became real.

Rowan tangled his fingers in my hair as we said goodbye on the front steps outside my apartment building. His tongue slid across my bottom lip, tickling my mouth to open further and let him in. It felt like we were the only people out there and I wished we were because the way his fingers moved along my hips as he pulled me closer to him just about made me take our clothes off again.

One more kiss and he pressed his forehead against mine. “See you later.”

“I promise. Now go.”

“Before I get to home base right here on your steps?”

Spreading my palms across his broad chest, I couldn’t help but smile. “You can’t make those jokes when you’re a professional baseball player. Now go rescue your cat and tell them I say hi.”

Rowan nuzzled my neck, sending a shiver across my skin. “Fine.” He pulled away, making sure I knew how hard it was for him, as he promised me we’d make up for it later.

Watching him walk away, I smiled with the chance to check him out. I wasn’t looking to place knives like I told him once, but this time I could look without guilt. I could’ve screamed, standing there staring at just his butt. He’d done something to me and I hated having to close my eyes to pull myself together. Moments from last night flashed into my thoughts as he reached his car, especially when Rowan told me he loved me.

“When did you know?” I shouted to him from the steps, the rain muffling my voice. Rowan turned from his car door and smiled at me, wide and beautiful through the gray sky. The torturously slow twist of his grin weakened my knees as I stood there, knowing exactly what those lips could do.

“That I loved you?” He read my mind.

“When did you know?” I repeated, moving down one step.

Rowan looked to the sky, his smile widening, and back at me. “When you fell asleep on my couch.”

The night I went to feed the cat and turned it blue with detergent after it puked on me and I tossed Aubrey’s dress in the wash. The night I started feeling the same way. When Rowan kissed me on his couch as I slept.

Waiting for people to pass on the sidewalk, I crept closer to Rowan at his car, all ears as he continued talking to me. Within arm’s reach, he pulled me against him once more, wiping rain-covered hair from my face.

I warmed in the chilly drizzle as his lips met mine, lingering just long enough to make my heart stop.

“When I couldn’t breathe seeing you there when I got home. When I spent two hours in the shower trying to not think about how you were sleeping in my clothes, that you’d been naked for even a minute in my house,” he whispered into my ear as he nipped my earlobe.

TWENTY-ONE

It took me an eternity to get dressed after showering and spinning around in my room once Rowan left. Without an idea of what to put in my overnight bag, I scoured my closet for anything that helped me feel confident when my stomach was storming with butterflies.

Wearing the same dress I wore when we went out in Vegas, I carried a bag with a change of clothes and toiletries down to my car. Smiling to myself on the drive to Rowan’s, I couldn’t stop thinking about when he knew he loved me and how that was the last time I slept at his house. The ache in my core promised I wouldn’t get much sleep, hoping for at least an hour so I could function the following morning to do it all over again.

Pulling up to his house, I could see his lights were on in different rooms. It took a minute for me to turn off the car, feeling like it was different now. We’d slept together. He told me he loved me. There was nothing for me to worry about. But I did. All the way up his front steps before almost breaking an ankle when he stood from the porch swing.

“Holy crap,” I muttered, trying to catch my breath.

“I’m sorry,” he fought a laugh, “but that was priceless and you look incredible. Dinner’s almost done, so I wanted to wait out here for you.” Rowan came to get me on the steps, wrapping his arms around me and spinning me onto the porch. “What were you thinking about for so long in your car just now?” Squeezing me against him, Rowan looked down at me with a smile.

“You. Actually.”

“Good.” He kissed me, slowly reminding me how much I meant to him with just his lips. He took my bag off my shoulder and set it down at the bottom of the stairs before we headed toward the kitchen. When we walked inside, his home felt more like I belonged there than when I came to help or hang out and plan our fake relationship. It smelled even better too, but that could also have been my senses on overload next to Rowan.

He checked the oven when we got into the kitchen and corked a bottle of wine, pouring us each a glass.

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