“I do?”
He crowded closer to me, touching his forehead to mine. “You do.” Then he stepped back, but he didn’t release my hand.
I trailed behind him, a little drunk on this new side of Dare. If I couldn’t have a glass of wine, I’d take this feeling every day. Whew.
Instead of his usual truck, he led me to a matte black car that looked as if it has been modified into something between a sports car and a beast of a car out of the show Supernatural. He lunged forward before I could grab the handle and opened the door for me. I murmured a thank you and slid inside. It smelled of leather and something else. Dare didn’t usually wear cologne, but there was something different about him tonight.
He got in on the driver’s side and while it seemed huge from the outside, the inside shrank when he sat next to me. There were two bucket seats, but they were one huge unit inside the car with a monster shifter on the floor.
“I thought you had a truck.”
Dare grinned. “Buckle up, Kel.”
“So many things I don’t know.” I thought I’d said it under my breath, but his grin kicked up a notch, making him look younger and sweeter. And somehow more dangerous.
Maybe we needed to turn down the heat.
Were these tights too hot?
He gunned the engine and the vibration of it curled through me and came up out of my chest with a little moan. Well, that was unexpected.
“I used to be a race car driver. We found this old Boss abandoned at one of the tracks we used to use for practice. I hauled it in and rebuilt it over the years.” He shifted and eased onto Main Street.
It was dusk and a few people turned their heads to watch us pull away. Suddenly, I felt like I was going out with someone my dad wouldn’t exactly approve of. Why that made me inordinately happy, I wasn’t going to dissect.
“Race…wow.” I turned my body toward him, leaning against the huge door. “Like NASCAR?”
He nodded. “My brother and I chased up from pit crews to drivers. Was a bitch—er, sorry.”
I shrugged. “I like adult conversations after listening to six-year-olds all day. Especially the bad words.” Especially when he said them. There was something about his rumbly voice that made everything come alive inside of me. Like his voice was rusty from disuse.
He turned onto the lake road. “Our reservations aren’t for an hour. Okay with a drive and to talk?”
I swallowed. The talking part was the hardest part. I had so much I wanted to tell him, and so much I was afraid to explain. How the hell did I get into this situation? This was more like something my little sister Rylee would do. She was the impetuous wild child. I was the good girl. The boring,
responsible one.
Oh, right. My stupid vagina was responsible for all of this. Never having a man who knew what he was doing down there had left me susceptible to Dare’s particular brand of excitement. One-night stand with a nine-month side effect.
Hopefully, his side effect.
The thought of a baby growing inside of me was already freaking me out, but the mere idea that it could be Tommy’s…
Ugh. What a damn mess.
Dare’s fingers tightened on the wheel and I realized I hadn’t responded to him. “Yes. Talking is good.”
He blew out a slow breath. “Okay, good.”
“Why did you give up racing?”
“You know that’s not what we should be talking about.”
I swallowed. “I know. I just…well, I want to get to know you a bit. We kinda skipped that part.”
“Does it matter?”
The blunt question made me straighten in my seat. “I want it to. I want this to be more than just…this.” I covered my middle with my hand. “Unless you don’t—”