Page 69 of Out of Bounds
“You should know, now that I’ve met your sister, I have real, genuine empathy for you, Tanner. You and I are like peas in a pod.”
The moment, whatever the moment might have been, fades, as it should, when he cocks his head to one side, one eyebrow raised.
“I know how it is living in your sibling’s shadow,” I tell him. “I feel for you. The lesser sibling, like little old me.”
He throws his head back with a laugh and I smile as I watch the way his muscles pull under the skin of his neck and chest, the way that strong jaw protrudes even beneath the beard I have the urge to feel against me.
“Annie, you’re so much more than a lesser sibling,” he tells me, sobering and re-intensifying the situation.
I shake my head. “No. I’m not, Tanner.” Which is one of many reasons he and I would never work, and he should hear it. “I’m not one of those people who was meant to fly.”
He opens his mouth to protest and I place a finger across surprisingly full and soft lips, feeling the grizzle of that beard. “I’m good with that. More than. I’m supposed to be a family girl, a mama, working on a ranch and rolling up my sleeves. Maybe one day doing some psychology work, too. I don’tneedfame and fortune. I genuinely just want to be happy and to make the people around me happy. More than anything, I’d like those people towantto be around me. That’s good enough for me. Simple girl. Simple life. That’smydream.”
His lips part under my finger, telling me to move it as his eyes tell me he’ll never let me leave – at least that’s what my mind chooses to see.
His hand comes free of his pocket and I think he’s going to bring it to my face, my hair, to touch me. He inhales long and hard, chest rising toward me.
Then he drops his hand and clears his throat but his words still sound hoarse as he tells me, “That’s a real nice dream, Annie Quinn.”
He bends to bring his mouth to my cheek, taking me so much by surprise that I’ve got to hold on to his shoulder to not fall back. The second it takes him to kiss me goodnight feels like a long, blissful moment of spice, wood and cocoa, of heat and warmth and the coarseness of his beard.
“Goodnight, Annie.”
I watch him leave, holding up a hand. “Goodnight, Darcy’s brother.”
I listen to his laugh as my door closes, then his clicks open and I plonk down on the edge of the bed, realizing that I miss him.
That’s what I’m thinking when he taps on the internal door.
I open my side. He’s already opened his, that same look is on his face again, gaze fixed on mine.
“D’you want to talk for a while, until we fall asleep?” he asks.
My next breath is unsteady as I shake my head. “Yeah. I want to talk, Tanner. I want to know why you’re so darn nice to me all the time.”
Now his breathing is heavy and I know he won’t say it’s anything more than him seeing his mama, a single mom, in me, that he’s supporting me to help my brother.
But the way he’s looking at me…
I take myself by surprise, stepping to him, thrusting my hand into the thick hair at his neck, locking my fingers into it and tugging his face to mine.
My own eyes widen as I watch his pupils dilate, and before I can talk myself out of it or lethimtalk me out of it, I kiss him.
30
PACE – LATE OCTOBER
Ruin Our Friendship
She tastes as good as I’ve imagined. Coconut, pineapple, tequila. A dessert I want to fucking devour.
But she’s been drinking. I’m supposed to be the older, wiser, sober guy here.
I’m going to stop this kiss, just as soon as?—
Her tongue slips between my lips and every sensible thought I have, every reasoned reservation, gets blurry. My whole damn head goes fuzzy as she groans against me.
I’m done in.
