“Shit,” he said, running a hand back through his hair. “No wonder you were mad at me.”
“You always claimed that girls knew what was going on when you started, but I knew for a fact that neither of them had any idea.”
“When was this again?” I told him the year that it had all gone down, and he looked far away, as if doing the math. “Ah.”
“What?”
“That was before I got better about putting my expectations out there.” He sighed and looked down and then back up. “Don’t go spreading this around, but I actually have had one real relationship.”
I blinked at him. That was not what I’d expected from him. “You dated someone?”
“For two years,” he admitted.
“What? How did I not know this?”
“I don’t hang out with a single person who knew me at that time. Campbell was gone. Nora knew about her, but she was still in high school. She doesn’t even remember. And after her…I cut everything out of my life related to her. Which meant I cut everything, except the winery and my family, out of my life.”
“Jesus, what happened?”
“She…I don’t know.” He blew out a harsh breath. “It didn’t work out. She left. I didn’t hear from her for a couple months, and then she came back. Rinse and repeat for the next year. When she was finally gone, I decided I’d never deal with that again. So, I did a one-eighty.”
He’d been hurt. He’d lashed out and been an idiot, but at least everything was starting to make sense about his behavior.
“I gave up on relationships.” His hand came out and caressed my cheek. “Until you.”
“This is only our first date,” I whispered, staring down into those perfectly earnest eyes.
“Second. I’m counting lunch.”
I laughed. “All right, second. I don’t think we count as a relationship yet.”
“Yet,” he repeated, drawing me back into him.
His arms wrapped around my waist as I slung mine around his shoulders. We danced among the grapevines with nothing but the moonlight and stars glimmering down upon us. He’d said yet. As if he was here to prove to me that this was more than another one of his conquests.
When his mouth fitted onto mine under the lights of the Milky Way, I believed him.
24
Piper
I wasn’t in my bed. I rolled over and shielded my eyes. The sun slanted in at an odd angle from the windows. They were covered by blinds, but enough light came in to illuminate the room around me. No blackout curtains. A navy bedspread. A distinctly masculine design.
I was at Hollin’s house.
The night rushed back in with perfect clarity. The kiss in the vineyard. The ride back to his house. The several bottles of wine we’d consumed before falling passionately into his sheets, drunk and delirious on the other. We’d passed out at some ungodly hour.
A smile crept onto my face as I shifted and my sore bottom rubbed against the sheets. Oh, right. Last night had been…perfect. Or as close to perfect as I’d ever gotten on a date. Never in a million years had I thought it would happen with Hollin Abbey. But it had.
“Morning,” he growled low, pressing a kiss onto my shoulder.
I rolled over to face him and caught a glimpse of his sun-drenched face. The morning rays lightened his baby blues to nearly translucent. A five o’clock shadow graced his sharp jawline. His pouty lips continued their path up my shoulder and to my neck.
“Mmm, good morning,” I purred, angling my head to the side to give him better access.
“I could get used to this.”
“This?”
“You in my bed.” His hand roamed freely across my bare stomach to my hip, drawing circles on my skin before reaching for my ass. I gasped as pain reared up from the night before. He pulled back with a lazy smirk on his lips. “Sore?”
“How could I not be?” I arched an eyebrow.
“Fair.” He drew my lips toward him and planted a sensuous, long kiss on them. “Too sore for more?”
“Depends,” I teased.
“I’ll just have to take care of you,” he said with that mischievous glint in his eye.
He rolled me onto my back and covered my body with his. My ass protested the sudden movement, but eventually, I was comfortable back against the soft sheets. But Hollin was kissing his way down the front of my body, and I forgot the pain entirely. He sucked one of my brown nipples into his mouth, kneading the other breast with his hand. I arched against him as he moved from one breast to the other, giving each ample attention.
“This doesn’t hurt?”
I shook my head. “God, no.”
His kisses ventured south across my stomach, down my navel. He swirled his tongue around my belly button before reaching the waistband of my thong.
“Don’t need these,” he said as he slid his thumbs under the material and dragged them down my legs.