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My first instinct is to decline. It’s what I usually do when I go out to eat, so nobody can judge me for my big appetite.
Duke senses my hesitation. “Get anything you want, Ariana. My treat, remember?”
I eye the menu. “The cherry cheesecake does sound pretty good…”
He doesn’t let me get another word out. Before I have time to second guess myself, he’s already asking a passing server for cheesecake. It arrives a few minutes later, and I tuck into the delicious creaminess, almost choking when I feel Duke’s leg brush against mine beneath the table. It’s been happening all night. His legs are so long that there’s not much room for them, but the contact makes me shiver every time.
I don’t want the night to end. The cheesecake may be delicious, but it’s a reminder that we’re a few minutes away from paying the bill and leaving. And I’m not ready to leave Duke yet. Heck, I can’t imagine ever being ready for tonight to end. With anybody else, I’d be drained and ready to go home. I’d be fantasizing about curling up in bed with a book right about now. But with Duke, all I want is more. More of him.
There’s an unspoken tension mounting between us as we finish our dessert, and I wonder if Duke is thinking what I’m thinking. If he wishes, like me, that we could stay in this moment, tucked away together at this corner table, eyes fixed on each other as the world around us disappears.
7
DUKE
It’s dark out by the time Ariana and I leave the restaurant. All through dinner, the tension inside me has been pulling tighter and tighter, threatening to break apart like a fraying rope. My cock is hard and swollen, fighting to escape my boxers, and every nerve in my body buzzes with desire.
I can’t help it.
Ariana is so fucking pretty.
Her baby blue dress hugs her figure, showing off every perfect contour of her body, and I have to resist the urge to run my hands all over her sweet softness. She’s an angel, and not just in appearance. After our meal together, I feel like I know Ariana a lot better: her dreams and fears, her family, her insecurities. I share parts of myself too, opening up about the way people look at me like I’m a monster. It’s something I’ve never talked about with anybody, but telling Ariana felt so natural. So right.
I just wish I could take her home with me. I wish I could scoop her up in my arms and carry her into my cabin, holding her close as we head for the bedroom…
“That was really fun,” Ariana says, pulling my attention back to the present. “Thank you.”
She smiles at me, and my eyes linger on her juicy lips for a moment too long.
“Glad you had fun. I did too.”
Fun is an understatement. Every second I spend with this girl is magical, and as we round the corner onto Main Street, getting closer to her apartment, my mind starts racing with excuses for her to stay. It comes to me in a flash of inspiration as I look up at the night sky, catching sight of the stars twinkling overhead and instantly remembering something I heard on the radio yesterday.
“There’s meant to be a meteor shower tonight,” I say hurriedly as we reach Mountain Brew.
“Really?”
The excitement sparkling in Ariana’s eyes convinces me to keep talking. “I know it’s getting late, but want to go check it out?”
“Sure!”
Her voice is filled with sweet enthusiasm, almost like she was dreading having to part ways, too. It makes my heart skip a beat to know that she wants to be around me.
“There’s a great place to see it in the forest—a huge clearing a couple of miles from my cabin. You can see the whole sky, and the trees block out all the light from Cherry Hollow.”
“Sounds perfect.”
Ariana beams at me, her pretty features glowing in the warm light of a nearby streetlamp. Instead of going around the side of Mountain Brew to her apartment, we walk to my truck, where I help her into the passenger seat. My hands brush her plump hips as she hoists herself up, and I get a delicious view of her ass cheeks. Stifling a groan, I shut the door for her before hopping into the driver’s seat, my cock harder than the damn gearshift as I pull out of the parking space and begin the drive to the forest.
Fuck, I want Ariana so badly.
I want to stuff her full of my cock and watch her come undone for me as she screams my name in that pretty little voice.
I want to make her gorgeous body quiver with orgasms until she’s sobbing for me.
It’s not something a forty-two-year-old beast should be thinking about a beauty half his age. It’s sure as hell not something Prince Charming would think. But right now, I want her too much to care.
The air is thick with tension, threatening to boil over as we leave the town behind us and drive into the shadowy woods. It’s not like being tucked away in the corner of Hollow Grill with people chatting all around us. Out here, we’re completely alone. It’s like we have the entire forest to ourselves.
