His mouth quirked and his fingers seemed to grip my face tighter, his body moving closer. “I want so much from you. So muchforyou, Cee. You don’t even know the half of it. But right now I just want you to understand. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said solely because I was realizing how hypnotizing he could be up close.
Trailing my eyes over him, I shamelessly took in his well-defined jaw, his clean-shaven face, his incredibly sculpted cheekbones. That brown skin that literally glowed in any light setting, smooth and soft and beautiful. And those eyes that were so much more than a color. They were a man,myman. Quiet, sure, loyal, dependable, and always there. Always fucking there. For me.
Looking at him, I knew that crack in the rule book, in my heart, had just cracked a little deeper. It was sharp and dizzying and intoxicating in a way that made me want to touch him. It had me repeating myself dazedly even though he hadn’t asked. “Okay.”
He gave me a look that had‘bullshit’written all over it, his eyes narrowing at me suspiciously. “Okaywhat?”
“Okay, I…” I peeked at him. “I understand that I’m getting somewhere. And my impatient ass just needs to ride it out and see where things take me.”
He smiled and his barely-there dimples came out. They only appeared when he smiledreallybig.
“Such a good listener,” he cooed sarcastically.
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. Connor freaking Ferguson. I never would have guessed the boy who hardly talked would be the one who could talk me down from anything.
He watched me as I laughed, eyes going all over as if he wanted to commit the sight to memory. As I came down, a ghost of a smile continued to pepper his expression. “She’s not dead you know?”
“What?” I asked, giving him a look. “Con, you know I’ll hide a body for you but—”
A nip to my jaw shut me the hell up. The press of Connor’s body was warm and heavy, reminding me that he still had me pinned to the garage floor as he leaned over me.
“I meanyou, smartass,” he said. “The old Ceci. TherealCeci. She isn’t dead, and I can prove it.”
Chapter Thirty-eight
CONNOR
I tried to keep from feeling ten feet tall as the excited squeal filled the space of my second garage. Verdict? It was impossible. Not when the girl bouncing up and down in front of me was the girl of my dreams and she was smiling so wide it looked like it might be hurting her face.
And it was all because of me.
“Like it?” I asked as I finished uncovering the small vehicle, the tarp I had been keeping it under sliding to the ground beside it.
“Connor,” is all she said as she began to circle the ATV four-wheeler. Her eyes were alight with mischief and wonder, her mouth pulled up at the corners in excitement. “It’s beautiful! Where? When? How?”
I laughed, and moved over to the front of the vehicle, peeking my head around the handles to see if the key was where I’d left it. It was, as was something else I’d left.
“Cee, it’s an ATV, not a wedding ring. Chill,” I said. I was bluffing. I loved that she was freaking out. I loved that she had that smile on her face that crossed between goofy and wicked and delighted. I loved that I knew how to make her smile that way, even when she was having a rough day. And I wanted to put it on there over and over again. “C’mere.”
She practically sprinted to me, bouncing as she stood there and waited, like I had candy for her or something. I shook my head and scooping her face up into the cradle of my hands, I couldn’t resist rubbing my thumbs along her smiling cheeks.
Such a quick change between the worrying girl from before and this eager thrill seeking one. Both of them Ceci and both of them right. Both of them a layered part of her others had to work to see, yet she gave them to me willingly.
“Go get some better clothes on. Long sleeves and pants,” I said.
“You have to let go of me first,” she replied.
“Right,” I breathed and removed my hands from her soft skin. As I did she grinned and tore through the garage in a sprint to get back into the house.
I huffed. The memory of her body under mine making its way to the forefront of my mind. She looked so good with her arms above her head like that. Her surprised expression parting her lips and reminding me what it felt like to have her mouth on mine. To have her tongue on mine. Not to mention the slight rise of her shirt as it pulled upward past her belly button. Or the soft dip of her tank top as it scooped just low enough to show me the tops of her cleavage. And don’t even get me started on the legs. Whenever she was here, she was either drowning in my clothes or walking around in those little compression shorts that drove me crazy. Not the ones from the bathroom that I’m still convinced were fucking panties, but still, pretty damn small ones that outlined her ass just as perfectly as any boy short panties would.
But all that was normal. I was used to Cee teasing me with all her smooth skin and her smart mouth. What I was not used to was her looking at me like she was waiting for something.Expectingsomething.
I’d seen her eyes linger on my mouth and I don’t think I was imagining the hunger there. The wanting. But, aside from at the park when I all but told her Ineededher to kiss me back and the one other time when I think I caught her so off guard that I just stunned her—she had never responded to my touch in that way. So willing, so wanting.
I knew a lusty look when I saw one, but I didn’t want to be wrong. I don’t think I could take being wrong. Not again. So I had gone for the tease instead. Her disappointed expression gave me the impression that I’d made the wrong choice.
