He leaned forward, his lips brushing against my earlobe. “You have no idea how badly I want to kiss you. But this wasn’t where we had our first kiss.”
“It could be our first kiss…now.”
He pressed his forehead against mine. “I’m going to do this right. Because I need you to remember. I need you to remember everything.”
I breathed in his exhales. This had to be what love was. I wanted to tilt my face up to his so that our lips would touch, but I resisted. He didn’t want to kiss me like this. Had something else happened on this golf course? He had to restrain himself near the waterfall. I breathed in another of his exhales. “What did we do out here?” But I knew the answer. I didn’t have that much experience with men, but his body language all pointed to one thing.
He leaned forward slightly, pushing my back against the tree behind me. I swallowed hard.
“It’s more a question of what didn’t we do.”
There was a scene playing in my head of him grabbing my ass, lifting me up, and pushing my back against the trunk of the tree. I could picture him raising one eyebrow and thrusting his length inside of me. Filling me. I didn’t want the image to disappear. I wanted to tell him I remembered. That I remembered everything. But the fantasy disappeared as quickly as it had come, reminding me that it wasn’t a memory. I was just getting caught up in the moment. I'd always had an overactive imagination.
Thunder rolled above us. I looked up, even though the sky was hidden by a canopy of leaves. “I didn’t know it was supposed to rain tonight. I love when it rains.” I laughed. “I honestly have no idea why I said that. I don’t love the rain. It makes my hair all frizzy and Melissa always makes fun of these bright red rain boots I wear whenever it rains.” I smiled. I could picture her look of distaste so easily.
James’ eyes searched mine, like he was waiting for something.
“She doesn’t like them because she thinks they’re the epitome of un-sexiness.” My rambling nonsense was filling the awkward tension and I couldn’t seem to stop talking. “But you try walking around on wet brick in flip-flops. You wouldn’t guess it, but they get so slippery. It’s like walking on ice. The one time Melissa convinced me not to wear my rain boots, I almost slid to my death.”
He pulled away from me.
I guess that’s not what he was waiting for me to say.Who would be waiting for me to talk about wet, slippery bricks?I’m so bad at this.
“I want to show you something else.” He put his hand out for me.
The thunder rolled again. “What is it?” I didn’t hear the rain yet, but I knew it was coming. And even though I said I hated the rain, every inch of me wanted it to pour. I couldn’t explain it. Maybe my first reaction was right. Maybe I loved the rain now. But why?
“Penny, I’m asking for you to trust me.”
I did trust him. And even though the thought was terrifying, I put my hand into his.
