by Elle Thorpe
The next time I kissed Summer Hunt, I was going to do it properly. And it was going to blow her mind.
16
SUMMER
Felix was amazing. Genuinely one of the nicest guys I’d ever met. He kept me and Dom entertained all evening, telling us stories about the ranch he worked on, and growing up with his grandmother, and the trouble he’d gotten into when he was younger. Once Dom loosened up, the two of them talked like they’d known each other all their lives.
The three of us laughed until two in the morning, when the bar closed, and they kicked us out.
But even as we said goodbye to Felix in the deserted parking lot, Dom’s kiss was still playing over and over in my head.
My mouth still tingled from that tiny brush from his. My lips were still seared with his touch and aching for more of it. Heat still pulsated up my arm, from where our fingers were joined.
He barely let go of my hand all night. Every time he’d gotten up to go to the bar, or the bathroom, as soon as he’d returned, he’d picked my hand right back up and stroked his fingers through mine.
It was the most innocent of touches, but between that, and the brief preview of what kissing him might feel like, and beating the bull, tonight had been the best date of my life.
We waved as Felix drove away, and then Dom turned to me.
I grinned at him. “Well, that was a bit amazing.”
I’d never seen Dom smile so big. He threw his arms around me, picking me up and twirling me around, both of us laughing.
“He’s great, right? You liked him?”
I nodded. “Definitely. I’m so happy for you.”
His gaze darted all over my face, his excitement palpable. But then it dimmed a little. “Shit, though, Summer. I completely ruined our date.”
“Not a chance. I had an amazing time.”
A little of his smile came back. “I did, too. But there was one thing I wanted to do tonight, that I didn’t get to.”
“Eat the nachos?” I joked. “Really, they were way better than what you ordered.”
He shook his head, that tiny smile playing around his lips again. “No, not that. I didn’t get to dance with you.”
“It’s okay. Next time.” I blushed at how presumptuous I was being. But I also really wanted there to be a next time. I wanted him to know that.
“I don’t want to wait until next time. I don’t want to go to bed tonight, kicking myself for missing my chance.” He tugged me toward the truck and leaned through the open window, hitting a button on the dashboard. It lit up, and a fast-paced, boot-scooting song blared through the speakers.
I did a little jig, trying to keep up with the incredibly fast notes.
Dom sniggered and took his phone from his pocket, switching the stereo to Bluetooth. In the next moment, the song changed abruptly, and “Slow Dance in a Parking Lot” by Jordan Davis started playing.
I raised an eyebrow. “You trying to tell me something with this song choice, cowboy?”
He grinned and stepped in close, pulling me into his arms. “Yes. I’m trying to tell you that I want to dance with you. Right here. Right now. At 2 a.m. In a parking lot. How about it?”
I grinned up at him, my heart thumping. “The bouncer is probably watching.”
“I don’t care who’s watching, Summer. I just want to dance with you.”
My knees went weak. “I’d like that.”
The lyrics washed over us as he spun me around beneath a sky full of stars, with the warm, summer night air misting over our skin. I leaned into his body, resting my head against his chest, and he slowed it right down to a sway. His fingers brushed the bare skin at my lower back, sending delicious trembles through my entire body.
“I need to ask you something,” he murmured into my hair.
I leaned back an inch and stared up at him. “What?”
“Is this thing with you and me a rebound? If I kiss you right now, will this be a one-time thing that is all mixed up with your feelings for Austin? Because I don’t want to be that guy for you. If you need a rebound, I get it. But it can’t be me.” He stopped dancing and tilted my chin up, his eyes burning into mine. “I’m not a one-night stand. Not for you. I’m the guy you fall in love with, Summer. That’s all there is to it.”
Shock punched through my gut, stealing my breath. I clutched him tighter while my head spun with the enormity of what he’d said. I opened my mouth to answer, and his gaze dropped to my lips. A growl of need reverberated from his chest, and his hand snaked into my hair, tugging it back so my face was fully lifted to his.
I closed my eyes, a throbbing starting up in my core.
“I want you, Summer,” he murmured. “Don’t say no.”
I pulled his head down to meet mine, but his lips hovered just an inch away, our breaths mingling.
“Say it. Say yes,” he whispered.
I couldn’t give him promises. Not the sort he wanted. This wasn’t one night for me, but I’d been burned so bad. I couldn’t promise him a forever. I couldn’t promise him I could fall in love with him when I had no idea if that part of me had been obliterated by someone else.
So I gave him what I could.
I gave him the truth. “I need you,” I whispered.
Then I waited to see if that was enough.
His lips slammed down on mine, and his fingers dug into my hips, picking me up and pressing me back on the truck.
His kiss stole the breath from my lungs, leaving me hungry and desperate for more, and when his tongue ran the seam of my mouth, I opened for him, letting him in, letting him feel how bad I wanted him. I clutched at him, kissing him desperately, wanting his body against mine, his dick hard behind his jeans, teasing the softness at my core. Our mouths moved in effortless synchronization, while my head fought to lose it completely and entirely, over a man who’d been my friend for the longest time.
In that moment, I realized I’d never been kissed before. Not like this. Not where kissing became a whole-body experience that blocked out everything around us. The parking lot disappeared in Dom’s kiss, the bouncer, the music playing on the truck speakers. All of it paled in comparison to the way Dom held me, and the way his body felt, moving with mine.
He was right. He wasn’t a one-night-stand sort of guy.
He was the sort of guy who had the power to make you fall in love right there and then, with a solitary kiss.
He was the sort of guy whose kiss made you realize there would be no other kisses like it, no matter how long you lived.
He was the sort of guy who kissed you, then broke your heart, if he ever decided that what he wanted wasn’t you.
And I was the sort of girl who didn’t care. Because in that moment, he was everything. And I was the girl who was willing to open up her heart again, willing to fall, no matter how much it might hurt if the day ever came when he changed his mind.
17
DOMINIC
In an effort to not appear completely desperate, I promised myself I wasn’t going to call or try to see Summer until Monday. I’d really put myself on the line before our kiss the other night, and though I’d meant every word, I’d seriously gone from zero to one hundred in the space of an evening. Now I was kind of worried I might have scared her off.
I managed to keep myself away from the main house on Saturday, and instead laid low, with a stupid grin on my face every time I thought about Summer. I called my parents and talked to them for a while, watched some Netflix, texted Felix, and had beers with Preston and a couple of the other guys who were living on the property.
But by Sunday morning, I knew I wasn’t going to make it through the day without seeing her. If I looked like a desperate fool, then I’d wear it with pride.
I wanted to see her. I wanted to pick right up where we’d left off, kissing beneath the stars. That wasn’t going to happen if I hid out in my cabin all weekend. I picked up my phone and shot her a text.
I can’t stop thinking about you.
My t
humb hovered over the ‘send message.’ “Going a hundred miles an hour again,” I muttered. But fuck, I’d been patient so long. Years I’d waited for her, barely dating because nobody ever interested me the way she did.
Then I remembered the way she’d felt in my arms and I took a chance. I hit ‘send.’
Then I stared at my damn phone, desperately waiting for those little dots to appear that signaled she was typing back.
Nothing came.
I groaned and got my ass out of bed, dragging it into my shower. I turned it all the way to cold, but even the barely room temperature water cascading over my head did nothing to get me thinking any more clearly. My mind just started drifting to what I could be doing if Summer were here with me right now, instead of just a few hundred meters away, in her bedroom.
I wanted to know if she was thinking about me. If she was reliving that kiss in the parking lot and wishing we’d taken it further. We had time. There was no need to rush, but fuck. It was so hard to keep myself in line.
The moment I got out of the shower, I wrapped a fluffy white towel around my torso and padded barefoot back into my bedroom to check my phone.
Still no message.
I got dressed and wandered over to the training rings, pleased when Frost was sitting high on the bleachers, watching a couple of guys practice. I climbed the stairs to sit beside him, neither of us uttering a greeting. We both watched in silence for a while, Frost jotting down a few things on a notepad.
“Heard you took Summer out.”
“Yes, sir.” We’d ditched the formalities at work a long time ago, but I was well aware he wasn’t speaking to me as a boss, but as a father. That commanded a different sort of respect.
“Good. She needs a friend right now.”
Warmth crept up the back of my neck. I wasn’t a good liar, but it also wasn’t my place to tell Summer’s dad about us. Summer and I hadn’t even discussed it, so there was no way I was going to do that with Kai.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out, a grin spreading across my face when I realized it was Summer. I angled my phone away from Frost before I opened her message.
I spent the night at Hallie’s place. Girl talk was needed. But I can’t stop thinking about you either.
I leapt to my feet and punched the air. “Yes!”
The guys down in the ring looked up at me in confusion.
Kai frowned. “What the fuck are you doing? That ride was awful.”
“The ride? Oh, right. Yeah. Terrible.” I hadn’t seen a second of it.
“So what are you cheering about?”
It was all I could do not to blurt it out. “Nothing. Uh. My favorite football team back home just won a game. I gotta go.” I wasn’t scheduled to work today, there was no need for me to be here. I was just going to put my foot in it with Summer’s old man if I kept trying to lie. Now that I knew she wasn’t here anyway, it was better if I avoided Frost for the rest of the day.
I jogged down the stairs again before he could stop me. I had one to go when he called out.
“Dinner at our place tonight, Dom.”
I swiveled on my heel. “Huh?”
Frost was gazing at me intently from beneath his hat. “Sunday night family dinner. You haven’t been to one since you got here. Seven. Be there.”
“Yes, sir.”
He gave a ‘you’re dismissed’ flick of his head, and I went back to my cabin. Despite the fact I’d been invited to Sunday night dinners from the day I’d arrived, I’d felt like I was intruding. But now it was the perfect opportunity to see Summer. Because there was no way I could wait until Monday morning.
18
SUMMER
Hallie peered over my shoulder as I sent the text message to Dom off into cyber space. Then she rolled her eyes. “You two are so wholesomely cute, with your ‘can’t stop thinking about yous.’”
I flopped back on her super-soft couch and tucked my feet up beneath me. “I know.”
“I still can’t believe all you did with him the other night was kiss, after he danced with you in the moonlight. If Nate had done that, I would have done him on the back seat.”
We both laughed, but then I sighed remembering the world’s most amazing kiss, and the way it had made me feel. I’d gone to bed the last two nights desperately happy. And desperately horny. I’d definitely been thinking about doing Dom on the back seat. In a bed. In the barn. Pretty much everywhere. My body still remembered the feel of Dom’s erection pressing against me in the parking lot. And my body had reminded me ever since that it had been ages since I’d had sex, and even longer since I’d had good sex. The kind of sex that Dom’s kiss had promised. “Trust me, Hallie. I’ve got a severe case of blue balls. I’m so horny, I might even look at you twice right now.” I winked at her.
She tossed a pretzel at me. But then she put the bowl of snacks down and held out a hand to me. “Come on, let’s get you laid.”
I squinted at her hand, not daring to touch it. “I was joking. I love you, but not like that.”
She rolled her eyes. “Stop. We’re going shopping.”
I got off the couch and followed her, picking up my purse as my phone buzzed again.
I want to kiss you again. If you were here right now, I would.
Heat bloomed in my cheeks, and I got into the passenger seat of Hallie’s green Volkswagen Beetle. Hallie raised an eyebrow, and I flashed the screen at her.
She grinned. “Write something back already!”
“What, though?”
She snatched my phone from my hands and typed something in, while I grappled to get my phone back.
“There! Sent!” She tossed it back at me with a huge grin and started the car.
I frantically read the message.
What else would you do if I were there?
My eyes widened. “Hallie! Jesus, now he’s going to think I want to sext him!”
She laughed her head off. “I know! Because you do! You just told me how horny you are, when you should be telling him!”
Heat burned in my cheeks, but there were those three little dots on the screen, and I couldn’t deny that a huge part of me desperately wanted to know what he was going to say.
When the phone buzzed again, I made sure it was well free of Hallie’s grabby hands before I opened it.
I’d brush your hair off your neck, gathering it up so I could tilt your head to one side. I’d come in close behind you, and kiss that spot right below your ear. Then I’d move lower.
I blew out a slow breath, almost able to feel exactly how that would feel even without him there.
Hallie glanced over at me. “Good response?”
I grinned. “Very good.”
Her smile turned smug. “Dirty text messaging is the best foreplay. Write something back.”
You were hard when you kissed me the other night.
The miles flashed by outside, and Hallie sang along with the radio until we made it into town. She parked the car and took my hand.
“Where are we going?” Nerves still fluttered through me at what I was doing with Dom. He still hadn’t written back.
“You’ll see. We’re just about there.” She dragged me a long for few more steps before dragging me into a women’s clothing store and leading me all the way to the back where they stocked underwear.
Hallie immediately started pulling sets of bras and panties out and tossing them in my direction. “What do you think he likes? Black? Red? Virginal white? See-through?”
I watched the pile in my hands grow. “I’ve no idea. But I am not wearing those.” I passed her back a set that was nothing more than a scrap of lace and considered a pair that were much more sensible-looking. Much more me.
Hallie steered me right back to the sexy stuff. “How about these?” She took out a low-cut black lace bra with a matching thong.
I eyed the set. “There’s no ass in it.”
“Because your ass is smoking all by itself. Flaunt it.”
&nb
sp; My phone buzzed again, and I glanced down at it.
I’m hard every time I think about you.
Heat flushed through me. I snatched the underwear from her hand and tossed it at the cashier. “I’ll take those please.”
Hallie grinned. “You’re so getting laid tonight.”
I bit my lip, trying to hide my smile. I could only hope she was right.
19
DOMINIC
I was already standing in Summer’s parents’ living room when she made it home from Hallie’s place. She slammed through the front door with an armful of shopping bags slung over one arm and a takeaway coffee in her free hand. “Sorry I’m late, I went shopping with Hal—”
She stopped dead when she saw me.
“Hi!” she squeaked, her cheeks going pink.
“Hi.”
The phone in my pocket still burned with the messages we’d been sending each other all afternoon. They’d gotten progressively dirtier as the afternoon had worn on.
“What are you doing here?”
Frost looked up from the drinks he was pouring and eyed her shopping bags. “He’s here for dinner. You want a hand with those bags?”
She clutched them tighter to her side. “No! It’s fine. I’m just going to get changed. I’ll be right back.”
Her gaze lingered on me for a moment, her mouth turning up at the corner before she ran upstairs.
It took everything in me not to run after her.
Mrs. Hunt took a drink from her husband and then passed one to me. I took a hefty swallow.
“I spoke to your mother last night.” Addie patted my arm. “I think she might be missing you a bit.”
That old familiar guilt rolled through me. “I know. I spoke to her yesterday, and she kept telling me all the things I was missing out on at home. I think she’s hoping if I miss it enough, I might go back.”
Addie shot a look toward the stairs her daughter had just disappeared up. “Will you?”
