She raised her head to kiss him again and he stopped her with a question.
“Do you want to touch me?” he asked.
“I am touching you.” Her hands were on his shoulders. He lowered his chin and narrowed his eyes. “Oh...you want me to touch it.”
“No. I asked if you wanted to touch me. I didn’t say you could. I’m asking if you want to. So... Clover Greene, do you want to touch me?”
“I do,” she said. “But—”
“You can also touch my butt, yes.”
She giggled and the sound surprised her. She sounded so young, so nervous.
“How is it you’re only eight years older than me?” she asked.
“Well, you were born in 1985 and I was born in 197—”
“I feel like a kid around you. That’s what I’m saying. And you know it.”
“You have a kid at twenty-one, you grow up fast. When did you start your company?”
“Five years ago.”
“I started mine sixteen years ago. Why did you start yours?”
“My grandparents sold their old vacation house and split the money with the grandkids. It was enough to start the nursery. You?”
“I had a one-year-old daughter, a wife with a drinking problem and we lived in a trailer with no heat. It was either work my ass off or freeze my ass off.”
“I...I didn’t know that about your ex. I’m sorry. Ruthie never told me.”
“Ruthie’s mom sobered up a long time ago. Ruthie doesn’t know how bad it was. She doesn’t need to know.”
“You had to grow up faster than I did,” she said. “I guess that’s why you seem so together.”
“Hey, I had to work and make money. Had no choice,” he said. “You had a choice. How much did your grandparents give you?”
“A hundred thousand dollars.”
He whistled. “How many people get a windfall like that and start a business with it? Maybe one out of a hundred? One out of a thousand? Everyone else would have spent it on cars or a house or socked it away for retirement. Instead you built a business with it, a business you work at twelve hours a day and seven days a week. You didn’t have to work as hard as you did, but you did it, anyway. That’s much more impressive than working because you have to.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“I know about it,” he said, stroking her cheek. “I’m older and wiser, right?”
“I didn’t say you were wise.”
“It was implied.”r />
“You make me feel young,” she said. “That’s all. In the good way. In the ‘nervous to be making out with a guy’ way.”
“That’s a good way to be nervous. But I’d rather you be relaxed than nervous. I don’t want to scare you.”
“You don’t.” She shook her head. “It’s not fear. It’s...excitement.”
“No, this is excitement.” He pressed his erection into her thigh again. She inhaled sharply and clung tighter to his shoulders.
“Yes,” she said.