“Well, you seem like a decent fellow. I hate to kill you.”
He laughed so hard into my neck, I broke into giggles.
He started kissing me softly, still chuckling, and I tipped my head back.
I hated that we only had time for this quickie. The second time would last longer. We’d take everything off. We’d play a little. Draw it out.
This was the night I wanted. It was the weekend I wanted. I wished I could just stay here, stay with him. I didn’t want to spend two days with Gabby and Jessica when this was the alternative. I didn’t want to ride the bike trail or sit in a chair on the four-season porch reading a book or get my nails done at the lone salon in town. I just wanted to do this. And it was weird because until I got here, I’d been looking forward to spending time with my friends. But Daniel had just risen to the top of a quickly shifting priority list.
Huh.
He kissed his way up under my chin. “I didn’t know your last name,” he said.
“What?” I said absently.
He came up to look at me, his earnest hazel eyes peering into mine. “It was on the reservation, but I didn’t know it was you.” He paused. “I’ve never done this with someone I didn’t know,” he said quietly.
The way he said it made me instantly feel bad. Like I’d defiled him. Made him lower his standards for intimacy. I mean, he hadn’t asked me my last name. But then he probably thought I wouldn’t have told him. And honestly? I probably wouldn’t have. I’d sort of had one foot out the door since the start of all this.
But I didn’t really have one foot out the door now…
I was going to keep seeing him. At least for the time being. He didn’t need to know my whole life story, but I could give him a little more than I had been.
I gave him a gentle kiss. “Alexis Elizabeth Montgomery.”
He smiled so that his eyes twinkled. Then he leaned in. “Alexis.” Kiss. “Elizabeth.” Kiss. “Montgomery.”
I never knew hearing my name could make me smile so much. I arched an eyebrow. “Are you going to Google me now?”
“Not if you don’t want me to,” he said. “Did you Google me?”
“Well, yeah. What if you were a registered sex offender?”
He looked amused. “And? What did you find?”
“Five-star reviews.”
He laughed.
My cell phone pinged from wherever I’d dropped it on the floor.
Daniel nodded over his shoulder. “Are you gonna check it?”
“I probably should,” I said, running my hands through his hair. “What if they’re coming back.”
He gave me a final peck and got up and handed me my phone from the floor. Then he went to the bathroom to clean up.
I checked the text and grinned. “They’re going to the VFW,” I called out. “Something about trivia night?”
Daniel smiled coming out of the bathroom, zipping up his pants. “It goes until ten.”
“So we have three more hours?”
He climbed onto the bed. “We have three more hours.”
He wrapped around me in the biggest, sweetest teddy bear hug, and again I marveled that he was both this cuddly boy and the guy who’d screwed me senseless a few minutes ago.
He planted a kiss on my neck, then propped himself up on an elbow and looked down at me. “Why is it a bad breakup?” he asked.
I wrinkled my forehead. “What?”
“Your last boyfriend. You said you’re going through a bad breakup. Why is it bad?”
I hadn’t planned on talking to Daniel about Neil. It wasn’t really information he needed. But now that it was the reason I was pretending I didn’t know him in front of my friends, it seemed like a fair question.
I drew in a long breath and let it out slowly. “The relationship was…abusive.”
His brows drew down. “He hit you?”
I shook my head. “No. He was mean.”
Daniel studied me. I couldn’t interpret the look on his face.
“What?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I would never be mean to you.”
The comment hit me right in the heart, it was so earnest.
No. I didn’t think he would ever be mean to me. Daniel couldn’t be mean to anyone, I suspected.
Whoever got him one day was going to be a very lucky girl.
When I didn’t answer, he looked at his watch. “I wasn’t expecting company, so I’m going to have to get creative with dinner,” he said. “I should probably feed you.”