Page 41 of Keeping Laryn
“More,” he insisted.
Laryn rolled her eyes. Yep, this was the Tate she knew and?—
Nope. She wasn’t going to finish that thought. “She’d been eyeballing you right before that. Shoving her tits in your face didn’t seem to be working, and I guess she must’ve gotten desperate. She came to the table with a tray full of shots, and she made a point of putting the first one in front of you. When you picked it up, she was just kind of…staring at you so intently, waiting for you to drink. Just made me wonder why. And after you drank it, the look of satisfaction on her face was clear as day. At least to me.”
“Do you think the others were also roofied?” he asked.
Laryn shook her head. “No. They all seemed fine. Besides, Barb had eyes for you and only you.”
“I’ve never fucked her,” Tate said bluntly.
Laryn was more than used to the way the soldiers and sailors she worked with talked. She wasn’t offended by swear words in the least. She shrugged at Tate’s confession. “Not my business.”
“It is,” he insisted. “She hits on anything with a dick. And I’m long past the point where I want sex simply to get off.”
“I think she was threatened by me, which is ridiculous, but whatever.”
“Why?”
“Why what?” Laryn asked with a small frown.
“Why is that ridiculous?”
She chuckled. “Because. I’mme. And she’s everything I’m not.”
“Thank fuck!” Tate exclaimed. “Look at me, Laryn.”
Her gaze automatically came up and met his own suddenly intense stare. “She’s a bitch. And I think we can both agree, now that she’s stooped to fuckingdrugging mento try to assault and possibly blackmail them into either being with her, or possibly giving her money by using an innocent baby, she’s also manipulative, conniving, and a sexual predator. You arenothinglike her, and that’s a good thing. If I’d woken up in anyone else’s bed other than yours, I would’ve freaked out. I said this before and I’ll say it again, I’m safe with you. You’ve proven it time and time again by making sure my birds are as safe as you can make them. I’ve been pretty clueless for years, but not anymore. I told you—I see you, Laryn. And things are going to change from here on out.”
“Change?” she whispered, terrified about what that meant.
“Did you really like it when I touched you last night?” he asked, instead of answering her question.
“Uh…what does that have to do with anything?” she hedged.
“It has everything to do witheverything. Answer the question.”
“You know you’re annoying, right?” she countered.
“Yup.” He leaned forward after pushing his now-empty plate to the side. His gaze bore into her own, and Laryn couldn’t look away if her life depended on it. “When I slipped my hand under your shirt, did you get goose bumps like I’ve seen you get a few times when I’ve touched you before? Did your nipples get hard? Did you want more?”
Laryn swallowed hard. His questions were intrusive and crossed a line she wasn’t sure she should cross with him. But here in her apartment, after the best night’s sleep she’d had in a very long time, after doing everything in her power to keep this man out of that bitch’s clutches the night before, her defenses were down.
She was tired of hiding her desire for Tate. And this felt like the perfect time to fish or cut bait. Wasn’t that why she’d considered taking another job? As far away from Virginia, and Tate, as she could get?
Taking a deep breath, and feeling as if she’d just jumped out of a plane without a parachute, she said simply, “Yes.”
Tate sat back, and instead of looking smug or conceited, he looked…excited. Pleased. Relieved.
“I said it already, but if there’s one thing I regret about last night, it’s not that I didn’t shut Barb down immediately. It’s not neglecting to tell her we didn’t want shots. It’s not getting fucking roofied—but for the record, that shit sucks. It’s not fun to wake up and not remember a damn thing. To have a huge blank space in your head when youknowit shouldn’t be blank. No…I regret not remembering how it felt to sleep next to you. How you felt under my hands.”
The damn goose bumps were back. She couldn’t control them.
And she’d pushed up the sleeves of her sweatshirt before eating, which meant Tate saw them…and smiled. Reaching out, he ran a finger over her forearm in a barely there caress. “Will you go on a date with me?” he asked. “We can go out to eat, or there’s an ax-throwing place that might be fun. I bet you’d kick ass at that. Or we can simply go for a walk along a beach. Whatever you want to do.”
Laryn wanted to pinch herself. Tate Davis was asking her out? She wanted to squeal in excitement. Or pass out. One of thetwo. She did neither. Instead, she gave him a shy smile and said, “I’d like that.”
They sat there smiling at each other for a beat before Tate stood. He picked up her empty plate and his and started for the sink. But he suddenly stopped and turned around. Then he leaned over her, and Laryn lifted her chin to meet his gaze, anxious to hear what he wanted to say.
