Page 72 of Burning Deceptions
“Where’d you run off to?” he asked.
I shrugged, not back in a good mood yet. “I wasn’t sure if I should stick around while you talked shop or whatever.” I huffed and put my hands on my cocked hip. “I’m not sure how to act when other people are involved.”
Luke pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m not sure either.” He watched me for a moment, then asked, “Are you okay? Is the secret bothering you?”
Yeah, but that wasn’t what was eating at me. Well, no, I supposed the secret didn’t bother me much. Would I have liked to have stood a little closer to Luke today? Yes. Maybe even copped a feel behind a car? Definitely. Was it the end of the world that I couldn’t? No.
I waved over my shoulder in the general direction of those men I’d spoken with. “Some assholes rubbed me the wrong way.”
Luke glanced around me. “Who?”
“I dunno. They were just pissed their car didn’t win. They said you only won ’cause of the money you have at your disposal.”
Luke sighed. “I get that a lot, and I understand their point. Try not to let it bother you.” He turned for the parking lot. “Come on.”
We were silent until we got among the thinning rows of normal cars and trucks. The wind had picked up with the dying sun. I shivered into my hoodie, the colder breeze adding to my gloom. I should get over it, but I didn’t like what those guys had said, and I didn’t like how I couldn’t defend Luke with full force as I’d wanted to.
Luke waved a check in front of my downturned face. “Want to choose the charity this goes to?”
I snatched the paper out of his hand, then lifted my gaze to his. He had a cute grin in place and bright pink in his cheeks.
“You always donate your winnin’s.”
It wasn’t a question, but he nodded anyway. “I don’t enter these shows often. For one, I don’t always have the time, and also for reasons like what you found out. People would rather cheer for the average person who put his own sweat and tears into the restoration. For me, it’s simply fun when I enter the shows. I don’t need this”—he waved at the check I still held—“so it goes straight to someone or something that does.”
I snorted. “Did you just call yourself above average?”
“Uh, I only meant …”
I laughed and punched his shoulder, feeling more like myself. “I’m just messin’.” I handed the check back to him. “That’s a very nice thing you do.”
Luke walked with me to my Civic. The date was ending before I wanted it to.
“Where will you take me next?” I asked.
He kept his hands in his pockets, same as me. “I didn’t exactly take you here.” He darted his eyes to my car.
“Oh, right.” I chuckled, bit the corner of my lower lip, and took a huge inhale. “Are we doing this right?”
“Maybe?”
“If we were alone, I’d kiss you.”
Luke clamped his lips together, not helping my fixation on them at all, then said, “I’ve been thinking about kissing you all damn day.”
“All day?”
“Do you have any idea how hard it was to keep all those car facts straight when most of my brain was thinking how soft the skin of your neck was against my lips?”
I swallowed and discreetly—at least discreetly for anyone potentially close by—adjusted my growing erection. “How hard?” I breathed and stepped closer.
Luke’s height advantage had him towering over me physically, but also with his growing confidence when we were alone like this. A far cry from the stuttering man he’d been on his date with Ashley. It had to be hard living so long without letting his desires out. Then to be a virgin for so long too. I couldn’t imagine the struggles he faced, but I did enjoy him getting comfortable with this thing between us.
His lips twitched into a split-second grin. “Breakfast in the morning?”
I slumped my shoulders. “Ugh. You and early mornings.”
He laughed. “My mistake. I forget you’re a college kid, sleeping until noon and wearing your pajamas to class.”
