“How do you cheat at miniature golf?” he asked, feigning innocence.
“You make up the rules as you go along,” Jessie challenged, moving a little closer to him.
Braydon purposely bumped her arm, keeping her close without actually putting his arm around her. It was a family place, and there were hordes of kids running around, but he had a sudden urge to be closer to this woman. For now, touching her arm was going to have to be enough.
“What rules did I change? You hit the ball into the hole. It’s as simple as that.”
“With my eyes closed? Or what about when you made me putt backwards?”
“Semantics,” he teased. “Fine. I’ll give you extra points for the difficult shots. You still lost by at least fifty.”
“Nuh-uh. I took all your points because you hit my ball into the hole.”
“Technically I didn’t hit anything, I dropped it in,” he told her.
Jessie put her hands on her hips and looked up at him. “I forgot about that. You’re right. In that case, you owe me another fifty.”
Braydon cocked an eyebrow, waiting to hear her new made-up rule.
“That’s what the rules say.” Jessie laughed, and the sight of her face all lit up made him grin like a fool. He wanted to put that smile on her face for the rest of his life.
Strange thing to be thinking on a first date, Walker.
But it was true. And technically this was a first date, but it really wasn’t. Which made it so much better.
“How about air hockey?” he suggested.
“Skee ball first,” she said quickly, glancing beside them.
Braydon followed her gaze to see that they were standing beside a row of skee ball machines. “You’re on.”
After retrieving the tokens, way more than they probably needed, Braydon returned to find Jessie talking to a mom who was watching her kid play skee ball. When Jessie noticed him, she excused herself to the woman and made her way over.
“You ready to lose?” she asked him seriously.
“Want to place a wager on this one?” he asked playfully.
Jessie glanced around them, and Braydon realized she was checking to see if there were kids listening in.
Braydon laughed. “Dirty girl. It’s an innocent wager.”
“Bray, I’m not sure you’re capable of innocent,” she teased him.
Braydon pretended to be hurt by her comment, but then moved over to the end and dropped tokens into two of the machines.
“So what are we betting?” Jessie asked as she stepped up to the machine.
“Foot rub,” he said, blurting out the first thing that came to mind.
“You wanna rub my feet?” she asked, grinning.
“If you win, yes. If I win, you get to rub mine.”
“Fine. You’re on.”
They shook hands and then turned to the machine. Braydon watched Jessie roll the first couple of balls, and he realized then that she didn’t suck at skee ball.
Just because he could, he tossed one of his balls onto her lane, earning a glare from her.
“Keep it on your side, Bray,” she demanded, bumping his shoulder as though that might help.
They played three more games after the first, and Braydon lost every damn one of them. Not because he’d thrown the game either, he just well and truly sucked at skee ball. But it was all worth it to see the spark in Jessie’s eyes.
“I win,” she said resplendently, bestowing him with a huge grin. “And I beat you enough to recoup points from losing at golf. I think it’s safe to say that I’m the first date champion.”
Unable to help himself, Braydon grabbed her and pulled her close, smiling down at her.
“I’ll let you have that title,” he whispered, “if I can have a kiss.”
“On the first date?” she asked innocuously. “What kind of girl do you take me for?”
Her smile was brilliant, her eyes crinkling at the edges, and at that moment, Braydon felt as though nothing in the world could possibly be better than standing there with her. “The sexy kind,” he said softly.
“Sweet words will get you everywhere,” she replied, her smile sliding away as she glanced down at his mouth.
His resistance was futile when it came to her, so Braydon gave in to the urge momentarily. He didn’t kiss her long and hard like he wanted, because there were kids around, but he kissed her deeply enough that she gripped his waist possessively. If he hadn’t been worried about innocent eyes watching them, he would’ve pulled her into a dark corner and deepened that kiss even more.
Instead, he leaned away from her, releasing her lips but not taking his eyes off her.
“So what now?” she asked.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“Yes. But not for this place,” Jessie answered, gesturing behind her.
The arcade was equipped with a pizza bar, but Braydon had to agree with Jessie. It didn’t sound all that good. “I know this great little Mexican food place.”
“As long as it doesn’t have a drive-thru, I’m game.”
“No drive-thru, I promise.” Braydon took her hand, entwining his fingers with hers as he led her toward the front doors.
They had managed to pass the majority of the day riding go-karts, fooling around at miniature golf, and playing arcade games. That was after they’d stopped for lunch at, yes, a place with a drive-thru. But it had been Jessie’s suggestion, so Braydon didn’t feel guilty. Now he was hungry for real food though. And real conversation.
Once they reached his truck, Braydon unlocked the doors and then opened the passenger side for her. When she climbed in, he allowed his eyes to travel down the slender length of her, stopping briefly to admire her sexy legs. She was wearing denim shorts, and they weren’t necessarily designed to be sexy, but Jessie made anything look sexy.
When she cleared her throat, Braydon looked up to see her watching him, a glimmer of amusement in her eyes.
“Busted,” he said.
“Definitely.”
With a smirk, he shut the door and made his way around to the driver’s side.
On the way to the restaurant, they managed to rehash the afternoon and all the ways that Jessie believed she had come out the reigning champ. Braydon argued his viewpoints until they both finally agreed that it was a tie. By the time they’d come to that conclusion, he was pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant.
“Have you been here before?” he asked when he went around and opened her door for her.
“Nope, but I’ve heard Kylie talk about it.”
“Please tell me you like Mexican food,” he said, realizing he hadn’t bothered to ask her originally.
“My favorite,” she said promptly, linking her fingers with his.
Braydon held the door open for Jessie, not bothering to release her hand as he did. When they were inside, the delicious smell of fajitas and enchiladas made his stomach rumble.
The host grabbed two menus from behind the counter and then led them toward the back of the restaurant. When he attempted to seat them at a table, Braydon nodded toward a booth on the far back wall. The man smiled and then directed them to the booth, informing them their server would be right with them.
Within minutes they had received a basket of chips, two small bowls of salsa, and iced teas. After they’d scrutinized the menu for a few more minutes, they gave the server their order and were then left alone.
“Did you have a good time today?” Braydon asked, attempting to make conversation.
“Yeah,” Jessie answered shyly. “I can’t remember the last time I did that.”
“A first date?”
“No,” she said with a grin. “Well, yeah, that too. But no. I meant the fun part. What about you? Did you have fun?”
“Best first date ever,” he said easily.
“How many first dates have you been on?” she inquired.
“Depends on how you look at it,” he told her, reaching for a chip from the small basket in the middle of the table.
“I didn’t realize there were multiple perspectives,” she teased.
“I think it’s safe to say that I don’t have the most conventional dating history.”
Jessie’s smile faded, but she didn’t look away. “What started that? You and Brendon sharing women?”
Braydon thought about the question for a moment. “I don’t really know if there was any sort of defining moment. That’s just the way Brendon and I started out. Her name was Elizabeth McMurray,” Braydon explained. “We were in sixth grade and the rumor was that she had a crush on both of us. So, Brendon and I went to see her at her house. We rode our bikes over and when we got there, she was sitting outside on the curb.
“We spent most of the day talking to her. I think it was the first time we’d really talked to a girl outside of school. We went back several days in a row. Always right after school. There was no doubt that she liked us. Both of us.”
“Please don’t tell me you had sex when you were in the sixth grade,” Jessie said, appalled.
Braydon laughed. “No. That wasn’t until eighth grade.”
“Oh my God. You lost your virginity in the eighth grade?”
“Yeah. But not to her. She was just the first girl we kissed.”
“By ‘we’ . . . you mean both of you?”
“Not at the same time, mind you. Brendon kissed her first. As a joke, we told her she should compare us.”
“Ladies’ men from the beginning, huh?” Jessie asked, chuckling. “Who did she say was better?”
“She didn’t. But we kept going over to her house for probably a month. That lasted until we realized she had shared the news with all her friends.”
“Oh, you poor babies. Did she tarnish your sparkling reputation?” Jessie joked.
“Yep, she sure did. We’ve never been the same since.”
“Right.”
The server brought their fajitas and margaritas and the conversation continued as they ate. It wasn’t until they had both pushed their plates away that Braydon returned to their original topic.
“What about you? What was your first kiss like?”
“It wasn’t nearly as eventful as yours, I can tell you that much,” Jessie explained, looking at her glass. “I was a junior in high school.”
“Late bloomer, huh?”
“Funny. This was just a kiss. But, of course, that kiss meant the world to me. I thought I was in love with the guy. He was a senior and much more experienced than I was. Needless to say, it didn’t end well. You would’ve thought I had learned my lesson, but no. That’s pretty much the story of all the guys I’ve kissed. Not that there have been all that many.”
When the waiter returned, Braydon signaled him to get Jessie another margarita. He was giving up after one because he had to drive, but he wasn’t ready to leave just yet.
“Tell me about the last guy you dated, Jess,” Braydon said.
Jessie’s eyebrows dipped down as she frowned. “What do you want to know?” she asked, already sounding defensive.
“Everything,” he said truthfully. “I want to know everything there is to know about you.”
They were silent for a moment, and Jessie didn’t speak until after the waiter returned with her margarita. But then, after she took one sip, Jessie surprised him.
Meeting his gaze across the table, Jessie started talking.
“His name was Mike. I met him at work. He was nice enough.” Jessie stared down at the table while she wiped the condensation from her margarita glass. “We didn’t work in the same department, but he was an executive at the company and I had to talk to him on occasion. When he asked me out, I felt . . . special, I guess. Come to find out I wasn’t the only special one.”
“Did he hit you?” Braydon asked, not knowing how to ask other than to come right out and say it.
Jessie’s eyes met his and he could see pain and shame reflecting back in the beautiful blue depths. “Can we talk about something else?”
Braydon didn’t want to change the subject. He wanted to learn more about this woman, her history. But he wasn’t interested in ruining their date, and the idea of any man putting his hands on her in anger was enough to set him off, so he held his tongue. At least in regard to the question. “Sure. I’m actually looking forward to getting more acquainted with your lips anyway, if you want to know the truth.”
Jessie blushed, her cheeks turning a pretty shade of pink as she looked down at the table.
He had told her he wasn’t holding back, and he’d meant it.
“Are you ready to get out of here?” he finally asked when they did nothing more than stare at one another, the sexual tension ratcheting to astronomical levels.
“Yeah,” she whispered.
chapter THIRTEEN
Half an hour later, Braydon was pulling up to her house and Jessie was wringing her hands together in her lap so tightly that her knuckles were white. Ever since Braydon had mentioned getting acquainted with her lips, she’d thought of kissing him. And she hadn’t stopped thinking about it.
Even now, she could imagine him taking her into his arms and pressing his mouth to hers. She could still feel the softness of his lips, the gentle urging of his tongue as he slipped inside . . .
Yeah, tonight wasn’t going to end well.
Well, it was, but it wasn’t.
Jessie knew she should be expecting him to walk her to her front door. Maybe a quick kiss before he disappeared back to his truck while she went inside and relived every single moment of their date over and over again until she fell asleep with a smile on her face.
But the smile she was imagining came from a different ending to the perfect day.
The truck came to a stop in front of her house, but Braydon didn’t turn off the engine. Her heart sank a little as she realized he was going to be a gentleman and walk her to her door and then leave. But she was okay with that.
Really.
She didn’t say anything when he climbed out of the truck, but for half a second, she considered reaching over and pulling the keys out of the ignition herself. She knew how easy it would be to give in to Braydon. To invite him inside, lead him to her bedroom, and let him make love to her for the rest of the night.
It would be too easy because she wanted him more than anything.
But she would be jeopardizing what they’d worked all day to build. If she wanted a chance at a real relationship with this man, she knew she couldn’t bring sex back into it too quickly. Not that she hadn’t already had sex with him. Which was probably why she wanted him so badly.
Remembering all the times they were together, all the ways in which he’d pleasured her body wasn’t a difficult task. What she seemed to have a problem with was imagining what it would be like with just the two of them. Alone.
Jessie was anxious to be alone with Braydon. “Alone” being the key word. No worries about who might walk in on them. Just like she’d dreamed about for so long.
But it wouldn’t be fair. Not to him. Not to her.
They needed to take things slow if they expected to move past everything they’d already put one another through.
The passenger-side door opened and Braydon reached in to take her hand, helping her out of the truck. She let him, and when he closed the door behind him, she knew this was the right thing to do. She would hope for a sweet good-night kiss and maybe a phone call later.
When they reached her front door and Jessie turned to face him, all good intentions went out the window. Especially when she looked up into his beautiful blue-gray eyes and saw everything she’d ever hoped to see reflected there. Without a doubt, Jessie knew he was struggling with the s
ame things she was. What to do . . . What not to do . . .
“Thanks for taking me out today. I had a great time,” she told him, trying to rein in her thoughts before she did something really, really stupid, like invite him in and ravish him until the sun came up.
Sex was not a building block upon which a relationship should be built, and she knew it. Then again, she also knew that the emotional attachment she had formed to him would be solidified by some alone time with him. But was it the right time for that?
“What are you doin’ tomorrow?” he asked.
“Tomorrow’s Sunday,” she said absently. “I think I’m gonna sleep late. Maybe veg out on the couch for a little while and watch reruns of The Big Bang Theory. Oh, and take a nice, long bath.”
Heat flared in his eyes when the last words came out of her mouth, and she immediately envisioned the two of them in that big bathtub . . . Oh, God.
“Jessie,” Braydon whispered, moving closer.
She should’ve moved away, should’ve said a quick good-night and slipped into the house and locked the door behind her, shielding herself from the onslaught that was likely going to break her even more.
But she didn’t do either.
No, what she did next surprised them both. When Braydon was just a foot away, Jessie practically lunged for him, moving into his arms and wrapping her arms around his neck. Without considering the consequences of her actions, Jessie kissed him. And kissed him.
Their tongues slid together while their bodies melded against one another. The kiss blazed out of control, a firestorm of passion and desperation that engulfed them both on impact. The only reason she managed to pull away was because she needed to tell Braydon to turn off his truck.
“Are you sure?” he asked, his voice raspy with a mirroring need.
“Positive.”
Braydon kept his eyes on her, but he didn’t move away. That was when Jessie realized he was as unsure of this as she was. Rather than wait all night, Jessie took matters into her own hands. She sidestepped Braydon, descended the stairs, and made her way to his truck. Less than a minute later, she was standing beside him again, only this time he was the one to pull her against him.
Braydon Page 17
