Tenderness filled me. “I’ve been nervous too.”
“Really?” She seemed pleased by that.
“Absolutely. You matter, Arro.”
Last night as Dave drove us to our respective homes, I asked Arro to go out with me the following night. I didn’t want to waste any time. Thankfully, she’d said yes.
I was glad we didn’t wait. I would’ve been an impatient mess until the date.
“I didn’t think you got nervous about anything. Well, other than Robyn.”
“The two most important relationships of my life.”
“Ours? Our relationship?”
How could she not know that by now?
“Even over Lachlan?”
Ah, now I understood. Leaning across the table, I told her firmly, “Your brother is family to me, always will be, but going forward, you will always come first, Arro. Always.”
Emotion brightened her eyes, and she nodded.
“May I get you anything to drink before you order, Mr. Galbraith?” The server appeared at the table, breaking the moment.
Conversation eased between us over the course of the meal, and we talked about our usual, everyday stuff as we ate and watched the sea grow steadily choppier.
I told Arro about Robyn and how she’d been rooting for us for months. This surprised and pleased her, and I felt stupid for not realizing that, of course, Arro might be a wee bit concerned about my daughter’s response to us.
“How do you think the village will react?” Arro asked a few hours later as I held her hand and led her across the restaurant’s small car park to my SUV.
“I couldn’t care less,” I replied bluntly.
“No, me neither,” she assured me. “But you saw how they were in Flora’s when they thought something was going on between us.”
Holding the passenger door open, my gaze dropped to her legs as she hopped in and smoothed down the short skirt that stretched across her thighs. Heat coursed south as I imagined those legs wrapped around me. “I don’t care about their reaction, Arrochar,” I murmured thickly, studying her body, lingering on the silk where it clung to her breasts before meeting her eyes. Her cheeks flushed, expression bright with arousal. “It would take an army to hold me back now.”
Her lips parted, and I couldn’t help myself. I leaned into the car and kissed her. It was meant to be soft, reassuring, but as soon as she opened her mouth, I took her like a starving man.
She tasted sweet from her dessert.
I pulled back but stayed close, my nose almost touching hers. I could see every striation in her eyes as she held my gaze. “Let’s promise to keep this about you and me. No outside interference.”
Arro nodded. Voice a little hoarse, she said, “I promise.”
Blood rushed in my ears as we stepped into Arro’s house.
Because I knew what I wanted. What I needed. And I didn’t want to waste any time in my pursuit of it. That had been the longest drive of my life. Every time Arro shifted in her seat, my attention moved with a will of its own to her thighs.
Arrochar Adair had done something I hadn’t known was possible anymore. She’d turned me into a horny fucking teenager. I was a man reborn.
“I’ll make coffee,” Arro said as soon as the door locked behind us.
No, I wanted to say. I just want you.
But she’d already kicked off her heels and strolled through the living room to the kitchen. I followed her in, my gaze on her perfect arse in that skirt that had fascinated me from the moment she got in my car.
My trousers tightened as all the blood in my body rushed to my dick.