Page 146 of Zach
He tightens his fingers until I give up, then he softly strokes his thumb over my hand. “I’m sorry.”
I slump back into the seat, the top of my head tingling from his touch. “If we’re not careful, we’re
going to blow this up before the first date. Between your insecurities and mine, it’s a freaking
minefield.”
“I know,” he says, frowning. “What if we just talk it out?”
“To each other?” I ask, not able to imagine spilling every insecurity I have onto this man. “That
seems like a good way to ruin things.” When he frowns at me, I snort and lay it out for him.
“Do you really want to discuss other women and your experiences with me?” His look of horror
makes me laugh. “You’re suggesting we make ourselves completely vulnerable to each other. To just
strip ourselves bare…metaphorically speaking. I don’t think either of us has earned that trust yet.
We’ve only known each other two weeks.”
“Right,” he mutters, frowning. “That’s a good point.”
“You do realize we’re doing this all backward, don’t you?”
One of those perfectly arched brows raises. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, we skipped over the flirting and casual conversation over coffee, and went straight to
tearing clothes and talking about feelings. I didn’t realize it would be so exhausting. Aren’t you
tired?”
Chuckling, he brings my hand to his lips and presses a casual kiss there. The action almost…
relaxed and absentminded. Like a reflex. The spot on my hand his lips touched is tingling.
“I’m not tired right now, but you’re right. I don’t know how to play this game.”
“Neither do I,” I remind him.
“That puts us on equal footing.” He takes a deep breath, exhaling with a sigh. “So maybe we
forget what we’re supposed to do, and just…play it by ear?
“I like the sound of that,” I say with a smile.
Spending time together, without a bunch of rules or ideas about what we should do, sounds like
heaven. When my personality bangs against rules and expectations…that’s when things start to fall
apart.
And I really don’t want this to fall apart.
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ZACH
