“You’re a beautiful woman with a name that means ‘heaven.’ It’s your influence on me that makes me good with words,” he replies before looking me up and down with desire and fascination.
I stop walking to lean my head backward and let out a laugh.
He must do that on purpose.
“What are you trying to do with me?” I eventually ask. Adrian takes a step toward me and fixes his hair, which is now covered in snow.
“The same thing you’re doing to me,” he admits, but it doesn’t clear things up for me.
“And what might that be?” He takes another step closer, but so do I. The fogs of our breaths intertwine and dance in front of us in perfect harmony.
I have no idea what the hell we’re doing. This man is a stranger. And a player. Everyone knows Adrian Romana isn’t the relationship type of person—I did my research over the past three months.
They call him the heartbreaker of F1.
He likes to sleep with lots of women but never dates any of them. I know he’s directed his charm my way because he might be interested in hooking up. It’s why I should step away from him, ignore the way he keeps affecting my body when I don’t even know him, but I don’t.
“Take over your mind with thoughts of me. You’ve been in my head for the past three months now, Nevaeh, and I don’t know how to get you out,” he admits, causing shivers to run down my spine. He smells so good, his cologne filling the space between us until he’s all I smell. Until he’s all I see.
“I’m sorry?” I say with a laugh, but he shakes his head, smiling as he tugs a strand of my hair behind my ear. Another shiver of pleasure travels down my spine.
He’s a player.
I try to keep reminding myself of that, try to rationalize why he’s gotten so close, but it’s difficult to remember when he looks at me like I’m the only woman in the world that he wants to touch.
“I’m not. I quite enjoy looking at your face, which is probably why my brain keeps replaying the image of you.” Fuck, he knows exactly what he’s doing, but my cheeks flush red anyway.
His gaze trails over my face, studying me, memorizing me.
“Did you really not know who I was when we met?” he asks, taking a step back to give us both space to breathe.
“Not at first, but by the end, I recognized you.” He gives me a thoughtful nod, then smiles even brighter.
“But you were unimpressed?” I almost snort at that.
“Highly,” I lie, and he steps closer again, lifting his fingers to my face but stopping before he touches me.
“May I?” I nod before he even voices the entire question.
A chuckle escapes him as he places his thumb on my cheek, rubbing the skin there once before moving on to my lips and tracing them.
“How about now?” There is a lightness to his voice, a flirtiness I welcome.
“Hmmm, still not impressed,” I lie with a smile, and he chuckles again, leaning down to bring his mouth toward where his thumb is still tracing my lips.
My father’s voice breaks the moment before I have a chance to get lost in a kiss with the hottest man in the world.
“Nevaeh, come back inside, please,” he says, and I almost jump away from Adrian.
This is for the best. I don’t even know this guy, I shouldn’t be kissing him.
Adrian steps back, bringing the thumb that was previously on my lips to his where he runs the pad of it along his mouth. My heart stutters at the intimacy of such a small action, but I do my best not to overthink it.
“I’ve got to go,” I say, but my eyes stay focused on his lips.
“Okay. Next time then,” he replies while slowly backing away, shoving his hands into his pockets and giving me another one of those panty-dropping smiles.
“Good night, Adrian,” I mutter before walking toward my impatient father. He looks unhappy as I move past him and back inside the bowling alley.
