“Me too.”
She looks down at my semi-hard cock and bites her lip. Fuck, she’s hot. “Yeah, I can tell. And that’s making me even more turned on.”
“Knowing you’re getting even more turned on is turning me on even more.”
We both laugh, and Danielle lets out a deep breath. “Logan…I…I…”
“Danielle!” her mother calls. “We need to say grace. Please come to the table!”
“We’ll talk about it later.” I take her hand and take a deep breath, slowly letting it out to try and calm myself down. I’m so revved up I can hardly stand it. I’m getting turned on all over again just by looking at Danielle.
I pull her chair out for her at the table and then go around, taking my seat across from her. Something needs to be said about what just happened…doesn’t it? I can’t seem to form a coherent thought, and suddenly everything I thought I knew about dating goes out the window.
If Danielle had been any other woman I’d been pursuing, a kiss would signal taking things to the next level, and we wouldn’t sit down and discuss things until later on in the relationship when we were getting serious.
But Danielle and I are already serious, in a sense. She’s my best friend, but I don’t want to just be friends with benefits. I’m in love with her, and getting this close only to have her pull away will crush me.
Firelight from the tiki torches flickers over Danielle’s face. Her cheeks are red, and the flush goes down her neck and over her chest. Seeing her physically react to the kiss is making me get hard again. I shift my weight in my chair and pick up my glass of water. I chug half of it.
Danielle serves the appetizers onto both our plates. A new glass of red wine was delivered with the appetizer, and she goes right for it, taking a few big drinks before shuddering.
“That is so dry.”
Her face makes me laugh. “You drank half the glass before you realized that?”
“I swallowed it before I actually tasted it.” She lets out a snort of laughter. “Sorry, that sounded dirty in my head.”
“It kind of does sound dirty, which isn’t helping my situation right now.”
She squirms on her chair. “Mine neither.” She takes another drink of wine, and I catch her hand after she puts the glass down.
“Danielle,” I start, set on telling her the kiss means more to me than giving into physical needs.
“So, Logan,” her dad butts in, scooting his chair out a bit. “Tell me about this bar you own. Danielle says it’s profitable?”
Profits? What are profits? All I can think about right now are Danielle’s beautiful eyes and the way she makes me feel whenever we’re together.
“Dad,” Danielle says, seeming just as flustered. “Can we not drill Logan right now?” She brings her wine to her lips again.
“When would be a good time to drill him?”
She chokes on the wine. Coughing, she wipes her mouth with her napkin and sets the glass down.
“Twenty-eight years old, and you still don’t know how to handle liquids,” I quip, knowing she inhaled the wine because her mind went to the same place mine did. Well, assuming she was thinking a good time to drill me would be right fucking now.
Fuck. I’m going to have to dump my glass of ice water on myself soon.
Mr. Cross laughs. “All right. We can talk after dinner. No excuses this time, though.”
“Yeah, that, uh, that’s fine,” Danielle stammers.
“The men are having a drink after dinner,” Mr. Cross goes on. “Join us, and we can talk.”
I nod. “Sounds good, Mr. Cross.”
“Please, call me David. Or Dad,” he adds with a wink. “But really don’t.”
“I’m sorry.” Danielle goes for her water this time, taking a big drink.
“It’s fine,” I tell her. “It’s expected since we’re…we’re getting married.” The words have never sounded more contrived as they do right now. Something beautiful is starting between us, and talking like the beginning already happened seems wrong.
The couple next to us asks us about wedding dates and plans, and Danielle does her best to sidestep everything by saying we’re in no rush and don’t want anything big or fancy anyway.
Which is true.
Weston’s first wedding was pretty typical, I’d say. Dean and Kara’s was a bit extra because of Kara, and Quinn and Archer got married in Disney World. Wes and Scarlet’s wedding was more my style, something small with close family and friends. But if Danielle did want a big wedding, I’d—wait.
We just kissed for the first time a few minutes ago.
Now I’m reaching for my wine.
The rest of the night goes by in a similar fashion, and it’s so fucking weird to go from pretending to be a happy engaged couple who kiss and fuck and fight and make up all the time to pretending to be the same while ignoring the fact we finally kissed.