I laughed softly, letting my touch glide up against the hot flesh of his neck. “Nice? Your idea of nice is a little extravagant, don’t you think?”
A light chuckle rumbled in his chest. “Maybe. I warned you I’m not so good at this.”
He edged back and set a hand on my cheek, stark sincerity climbing into his expression, that sincerity a revelation of his fear. “I told you I didn’t have anything left to give you. And now, I want to give you everything.”
Every part of me softened. “Rex . . .”
And, God, I wanted it, everything he was willing to give.
“Too much, too fast?” he asked, a self-deprecating grin rimming his mouth, so sexy and sweet.
“I’m not sure there’s ever going to be too much when it comes to you. I’m just asking you to talk to me.”
His thumb brushed the angle of my cheekbone, and my mouth dropped open a fraction, relishing in the feel of his simple touch. “Warned you I have no goddamned clue what I’m doing. That I always manage to fuck up.”
“You’re not fucking up. We’re just . . . learning each other.”
He pressed against me, his voice growing rough. “Like all the ways I’m learning you.”
I clung to his shirt, flooded by warmth.
He edged back. “How about I make you a deal?”
“What kind of deal?” Cautious. Careful.
“You need a loan.”
“Rex,” I warned, already knowing what he was getting ready to say.
“Just hear me out.” He paused, waiting for me to give him a tiny nod before he continued. “You figure out how to get all the equipment for the restaurant, but we do all the installation and renovation.”
“Rex—”
He pushed a finger against my lips. “And you pay me back. Consider it a loan for something I believe in.”
My heart thundered, and my breaths became shallow. He pressed the gentlest kiss to my forehead, the word a vibration against my skin. “Please.”
Setting my hands on his waist, I chewed at my bottom lip as I shifted to look up at him. “What does this mean?”
What do we mean?
I wanted to ask him, but the tensing of his body cut me off. As if he didn’t want me to say it. To bring it out into the open. The fact that neither of us seemed to truly know where we stood. If we were coming or if we were going.
He pulled me against him. “I need to figure out some shit in my life, Rynna. I warned you, it’s a mess. But I’m going to fucking try. There’s a lot I can’t make sense of, but it’s time I do. Figure out who I am and who I’m supposed to be. Take care of some shit I should have a long time ago. But the one thing I do know? The one thing I know is I want you in my life. And if I can at least give you this? Then please . . . let me. Let me take this chance.”
26
Rex
Rain battered the roof and lightning lit up against the darkened windows. Thunder a constant rumble in the toiling sky.
I was already rushing for the door after I’d heard the bell ring.
My jaw dropped a bit when I flung it open and found her standing there. Drenched. Chestnut darkened to mahogany.
Standing there in the rain looking like a second chance. A better day.
Four soaked paper bags were wrapped in her arms, precariously clutched to her chest like she could keep them from ripping apart and sending all the items contained inside from toppling to the ground.
“Rynna,” I finally managed when I processed she was really there, standing on my stoop. I widened the door. “Come inside before you get struck by lightning.”
She ducked past me, filling my senses with all that sweet, intensified with the soak of the rain.
Fuck. She was undoing me. Minute by minute. I let the door fall shut behind her. “Here, let me help you with that.” I took two bags from her.
“Thank you.”
“What are you doing here?” I finally asked, feeling the satisfied grin slide to my face, because I sure as shit wasn’t gonna complain.
She cast me a cautious smile. One that slammed me right in the center of the chest. Kind of the way Frankie annihilated me every time she looked at me a certain way. Though, this was different. Obviously. This was lust and want and confusion and every-fucking-thing I wanted more and more.
She hefted a shoulder. “I just thought I would do something nice for you.”
Nice.
My chuckle rumbled like a partner to the sky. “Nice, huh?”
She bit her bottom lip with a nod. “Yeah. It seems my neighbor is a little on the thoughtful side. I figured I’d return the favor. How does dinner sound? Of course, I might owe you dinner for the rest of my life.”