She stepped in closer to me, the look in her eyes telling me how much she wanted my mouth on hers. “Well, I’m not going to. This is one addiction I like.”
God damn, I loved her addiction. And I loved being addicted to her right back.
“Are you going to kiss me right now?” I asked, lifting my eyebrow curiously. I was actually fine with it if she wanted to. If she wanted to come clean and let the world know about us, I could definitely deal with that.
I stepped in toward her, welcoming any kind of PDA she wanted to toss my way, but the move seemed to awaken her to reality.
Realizing we were in public, she quickly jerked back. “Crap. I forgot.”
A smile bloomed across my face, even though inside, I was strangely disappointed. “Figured. I tend to have that effect on you.”
She shook her head, her lips tightened from how hard she was trying not to smile back at me. Then she blew out an exhausted breath. “So, where do we go from here?”
“How about this?” I said. “My parents requested my presence tonight at this restaurant back home. I know we can’t tell your brother about us, but I’d very much like to introduce you to my mom and dad. What do you say?”
“How are you going to introduce me?”
“As Caroline.”
She rolled her eyes, but a reluctant smile curved up her lips. “Okay. No label. I can deal with that. At least I have a sense of where I fall with you now.”
No, she didn’t. She probably wasn’t even close. In fact, I doubted she’d ever realize exactly where she fell with me or how crazy gone I was for her.
We arrived at the restaurant right on time where the Tennings were waiting to meet us for dinner. After Oren parked and killed the engine, he drew in a deep breath and glanced across the seat toward me. Then he shuddered. “Damn, you look good in that. Are you sure we don’t have time for—”
I slapped my hand over his mouth to shut him up. Then I grabbed his other hand when it started to creep up my thigh and under the skirt of my dress. “I’m going to ignore the fact you just asked me to have sex with you right before meeting your parents, and I’m giving you one chance to behave.”
Grinning, he slipped my hand off his mouth. “And how the hell do you expect me to behave when you look so fucking edible? And smell so fucking amazing?”
I had to bite back a smile because, okay, I loved how he hadn’t been able to keep his eyes off me, except maybe to watch where he was driving every once in a while, since he’d picked me up. It was nice to know all my efforts to clean up nice had paid off. I hadn’t dressed up since...yeah, I didn’t want to think about anything that had to do with Sander Scotini right now.
“I didn’t wear this for you.” I smacked his hand when he resisted my efforts to keep him from going any higher on my leg. “I’m trying to impress your parents. I want to look...presentable.”
His fingers paused on my thigh; his skin was so warm it almost scorched me. Eyes losing their teasing glint, he shook his head. “Presentable?” he murmured as if the word were foreign to him. “Jesus, Caroline. You didn’t have to worry about that. It doesn’t matter what you look like. They’re going to love you because of who you are.”
I drew in a deep, shuddery breath. His words meant more than he could ever know. I was thrilled he had so much faith in me, but I still had no faith in myself. Now, I was even more nervous, because I kind of sort of really wanted them to love me. “But—”
He caught my hand when I started to smooth my hair out of my face. “No buts. Everything’s going to be fine. They’re easy to get along with, down to earth, laid-back people, so you have nothing to worry about. Okay?”
I nodded, but my stomach continued to churn.
“I’ll make you a promise.” When he leaned in to kiss my temple, I immediately glanced around to make sure no one had seen when it struck me...we didn’t have to hide anything here, not when we were so far away from Ellamore. Whoa. We didn’t have to hide here. “If you stop worrying, I’ll keep my hands respectable until after dinner with them. Deal?”
“Deal,” I said, though no way was I really going to stop worrying.
It must’ve been the right thing to say, though, because Oren beamed at me. “Great. You ready, then?”
Hell, no. But I nodded and sent him a tense smile. “Sure.”
An anxious fluttering instantly took root in my stomach as we climbed out of his truck and started up the front walk. But then Oren took my hand, and the fluttering instantly shot off fireworks through all my limbs. I glanced down at our linked fingers. His palm was so warm against mine. I felt strange, as if I was protected and cherished and desired, all due to one little squeeze from his fingers.
He was honest to God about to introduce me to his parents...while holding my hand.
Wow. This shit just got real.
As if sensing my nerves, he glanced over. His gaze moved from my face, and down to our hands, then back up to my face. “What?”
“Nothing,” I was quick to answer.