“It’s raining,” he said, not looking at her. And if I let you anywhere near my house right now, I won’t let you go.
“Don’t tell me there’s a gentleman hiding in there,” she said with a giggle, stabbing at the buckle on her seat belt and getting it on the third try.
“If there is, I’ll never tell,” he said, reaching into the backseat for her purse.
“Well, thanks,” she said, clutching her purse to her chest. “I um…I had a good time.”
“You sound surprised.”
She snorted. “Well, yeah. It’s probably the first time I didn’t want to kill you.”
“Unlike the last time we were in a car in the rain.” Whoops. He hadn’t meant to go there.
Her eyes clouded over. So she did remember.
“You were mad at me,” she added softly.
Dammit. Her voice sounded tiny and hurt.
“Honey, we’re always mad at each other,” he said, trying to lighten the mood.
But she wasn’t having it. “No, I mean you were really mad at me. You told me I was vapid and selfish because I was trying to boss Sophie around, and Sophie’s all you ever cared about.”
He refused to let his expression change. “I don’t remember that.”
“Well…I do. And then because yelling at me wasn’t bad enough, you had to punish me by kissing me.”
He swallowed, desperate for the flippant sarcasm that normally came so easily to him. But it was nowhere to be found. Her eyes were open and wounded and a little raw. As though that evening had hurt her. As though his opinion had mattered.
“I didn’t kiss you to punish you,” he said finally. It was more than he wanted to say, but he had to do something to vanquish the lost look in her eyes.
“Then why?”
Her eyes were locked on his lips and his hand was cupping her cheek before he was even aware that he’d moved.
“You don’t know?” he asked, his voice a little gruff.
She gave a sad smile. “I do know. I’ve always known.”
His heart lurched and he forced himself to swallow and keep his gaze on hers. “Yeah?”
She nodded. “You wanted what you couldn’t have. So you took it. Just like when we slept together. I was the lone holdout on your endless line of bedpost notches, and once you checked me off the list, the challenge was over. And then you left.”
His heart felt like it tumbled into his stomach, and he didn’t know if it was in dismay or relief. His hand dropped away from her face.
She didn’t have a freaking clue.
He didn’t know if he was disappointed or relieved.
He let himself shrug. “Yeah, well…if it’s any consolation, you were worth the wait.”
He expected her to get pissed, but the wine had made her soft. “You’re not getting in my pants again with the sweet talk, Thatcher.”
She patted him playfully on the cheek climbing out of the car and going into the house without a glance backward.
Will waited until the door closed behind her before dropping his forehead onto the steering wheel and letting out a string of oaths.
He’d known that the game he was playing would be difficult.