“Walk with me?” Asa held out his hand. “I would like a moment with you before we go.”
The certainty that the sucker cleaning up this mess was me left me tired before I started.
As our palms slid together, he exhaled a breath that mirrored the one parting my lips.
Whatever this was between us, it was getting stronger, kiss or no kiss, and I couldn’t deny that.
We walked the creek bed, the water a faint suggestion the farther we traveled from the truck.
“You want me to kiss you.”
“Um.” I planted my feet like that would throw on the conversational brakes. “Well…”
“That’s why the distance,” he said, as if analyzing the problem. “I asked for your permission, but I didn’t follow through.”
“The distance is because I want to give you as much space as you need to feel comfortable.”
There.
That sounded confident and concerned, not like a woman who fell asleep dreaming how he might taste.
“I should have explained myself.” He angled in front of me and slid his hands over my waist. “I was…”
“Nervous?”
“Yes.” His thumbs smoothed across my hipbones through the denim. “I’ve never kissed anyone.”
The air punched out of my lungs, and I couldn’t swallow enough oxygen to reinflate them. “What?”
“You’re aware of the limitations on my person.” He eased farther into my space. “There hasn’t been a woman I have given such permissions to, only you, and I didn’t want to disappoint you.”
“I thought you changed your mind, or that you didn’t want me.” I leaned forward, resting my forehead on his chest. “I didn’t want to throw myself at you, but I was getting close.”
“You’ve had sex.”
Sweat slicked my palms, and I was glad he was no longer holding my hand. “Yes.”
A lot of sex. All of it meaningless. Except the first time. But that act was borne out of necessity.
He sought my chin, tilted my head back, and forced me to hold his vibrant stare.
“Teach me,” he murmured. “I want to know how to pleasure you.”
Heat curled through my middle as a blush painted my cheeks with a stinging brush.
“Here,” I croaked like a laryngitic frog, impossibly sexy. “Now?”
“Not unless…” A curious glint lit his eyes. “Do you enjoy sex in mud?”
“No.” I flicked muck off my boot. “Mud is not great.” It got in too many places. “Water is okay.”
The mention of water sent his gaze skating past my shoulder toward the truck and Aedan.
“I meant to say that water is terrible.” I gripped his shoulders. “No one should even drink it.”
A smile quirked his lips that brought my attention zinging back to his mouth.
“Will Aedan stay with you?”