Page 74 of Fall With Me

“Things a teenage boy thinks when he sees a hot chick in a bathing suit that barely covers her ass,” he replied. “I don’t think I moved from that window until I couldn’t take anymore, and I don’t think you want to know what I did when I left the window.”

My lips parted. “What did you do?”

He arched a brow. “Give you two hints. Shower. My hand.”

“Oh.” My skin tingled as a sharp sensation swirled through me.

“Yeah,” he murmured, and tugged me another step forward. My leg pressed against his knee. “Then it was when you were seventeen and you made me a homemade birthday card. I don’t know why, but when you smiled at me and handed that card over, you came onto my radar and you never left.”

I totally remembered that card. I’d spentdayson it, drawing a picture of the Statue of Liberty, because I knew he was into the whole Marines and America stuff. And I’d felt so goofy giving it to him, buthehad smiled and he’d given me one of those awkward one-arm hugs. I’d thought he saw me as a silly kid.

“When I came back from overseas and I saw you...” He shook his head. “That hug you gave me. Never been hugged like that before. I didn’t understand why you were the first person I really wanted to see when I got back. I didn’t get it for a long-ass time why I started going to that shit hole that used to be Mona’s. And when I did finally put two and two together, and came up with the fact that I wanted you, then the shit happened with the shooting.”

I swallowed hard. I knew Reece had taken the officer-involved shooting hard and he’d been drinking a lot around that time, but before I could open my mouth, he went on. “My head wasn’t in the right place to act on it. The reason I came to Mona’s became more about getting shitfaced than seeing you, and then ... yeah, that night happened between us.” He tilted his head to the side. “That’s why I regretted it. Because I was drunk and my head was in a bad place. I didn’t want anyone around that, especially you.”

“Reece,” I whispered.

His eyes searched mine intently. “By the time I figured out what I was feeling for you, we weren’t talking and as always, shit just gets out of hand.”

My heart was pounding as I looked down at him. “What are you saying, Reece?”

That crooked grin appeared again as he curled his arm back. I gasped as he hauled me right into his lap, my hip cradled between his strong thighs. Still holding my hand, he wrapped his other arm around my waist as he leaned back into the chair. Having no choice, I went with him and ended up stretched out across his chest, my free hand landing on his shoulder. My body immediately warmed to being so close to him.

We were face-to-face. “And because of that—all of that, we did this wrong. Not that I regret getting in you. Fuck. No way. Looking back, I’m a hundred percent glad that was our first time.” The arm around my waist shifted, and his hand slipped over my hip, to the edge of my shorts and then splayed across my bare leg. A wave of goose bumps traveled across my flesh. “But I should’ve done more for you. The dinner. The movie. All of that. You deserved that. I think after all this time,wedeserve that.”

“We do?” My voice squeaked. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Yeah, we do.” His eyes drifted over my face, settling on my mouth. “How about we start over? You want that?”

I still had no idea what to say.

He arched a brow. “The way you’re rubbing my neck tells me you do, but babe, I want to hear it from that pretty mouth.”

My hand? I glanced at it. Hell, I was rubbing his neck. “I didn’t expect this,” I admitted. “I thought you’d tell me that we’d be friends ... or something like that.”

“Roxy, I already told you I was looking for more than that.”

“But—”

He tipped his chin forward, resting his forehead against mine. “I was pissed, but that hasn’t changed.” A heartbeat passed. “But has it changed for you?”

Part of me wished it had, because this with Reece was dangerous to my heart and common sense. I could really fall for him, but I ... I wanted him and—and I wasn’t going to finish that train of thought. “I would like that.”

“Figured.”

My heart flipped. “So damn cocky.”

“Just truthful,” he teased, plucking up the purple streak in my hair and twisting it around his finger.

I drew in a deep breath as his warm breath danced over my lips. My mind was literally blown. So was my heart, but in a way that was both good and concerning. This really was the last thing I’d expected. I suddenly had my present and future with him altered.

“Wait,” I said, drawing back. “If we’re starting over, does that mean, like, no sex until the third date or something?”

“Seriously?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “It’s a valid question.”

“Come on, babe.” His hand slid up my leg and curved around my rear, and everything in me turned to liquid heat. “I think you know the answer to that.”