“I can handle your brothers.”
“I don’t want you to get pulled into playing their fighting game. They like you, Gideon, and they don’t like me dating, so it means they’re going to try and stop this date.”
He saw her cheeks were heating. “You want to go on this date?”
“Yes. Of course, I do. Why wouldn’t I want to? You promised me a good date. I’m kind of excited about it.”
“Okay, good.” He gripped the steering wheel. “It’s not safe for you to be waiting on the doorstep like that. I’d have liked to be the perfect gentleman and helped you.”
She shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I do worry.” He reached out, taking her hand. He held her hand against his lips and kissed her knuckles. “This was not how I intended to start our date.”
“How did you intend to start it?” she asked.
He loved her curiosity.
Reaching into the backseat, he pulled out the flowers he had delivered to the house before he got changed and had his little conversation with his sister. Over a dozen red roses.
“Oh, my … they are so beautiful,” she said.
“They are for you. A woman should be given plenty of roses in her life.”
“Now that is sweet and kind of sexy.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek and immediately pulled away. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what this is.” She covered her mouth.
“This is?”
“Is it an actual date? A friend date? A date for family? I guess I assumed it was a date-date.”
He smiled. “I wouldn’t bring my sister flowers. To be honest I wouldn’t even take my sister out on a date, nor would I take any of my sisters-in-law out on a date. This is a date-date.”
“I’m so embarrassed right now. I don’t know what to do.” She held the roses and breathed in their scent.
He watched her.
For so long he’d been watching her from afar. Letting her go on dates with other men had been a nightmare. He’d been determined to let her spread her wings, at least in the realm of dating, but in no other part.
She was all his.
“I like you being here with me,” he said. “I want you to see this as a date. You’re a woman, and I’m a man. Simple as that.”
The truth was, his cock was so hard right now. He wanted to take her back to his place, or at least a hotel, and show her in every single way that counted that she belonged to him.
“I’d like that. A date-date.”
“I think we’ve said date a lot in the past couple of minutes. Here, let me put the roses back.”
He placed them on the back seat and pulled away from the curb.
“Where are we going?”
“I was thinking a nice meal, some dancing, and maybe a walk beneath the stars.”
“That sounds so wonderful.”
He knew it was because it was every woman’s dream date.
The restaurant he took her to wasn’t anything fancy or expensive. There was parking to the back, and it was a place he came to whenever he wanted to get away from it all. There were times when life and expectations were too much.