“No. I changed my mind.” He turned the car off and climbed out, stalking around it to open my door. “Get out, Zadie.”
He said it gently, so I didn’t bristle. I let him take my hand, helping me hop down to the curb. With his long fingers splayed on the base of my back, he nudged me along the path to the front door and inside.
“We’re really not going out?” I asked.
“No. We’re not.” He wove our fingers together, dragging me through the house. But I didn’t want to be dragged, and since I wasn’t a pet anymore—not strictly one anyway—I put up a protest.
Twisting my hand, I pulled free from his grip and stopped walking, fists at my hips. He whirled around, frowning at me like I’d murdered his kitten.
“Don’t take you away from me.”
My fists tightened. “Don’t drag me around like a dog!”
He ate the space between us, slid his arm around my waist, and pulled me against his chest. “I’m fifteen seconds from losing my mind. If I don’t get you in my bedroom right now, I’m fucking you right here. I don’t know where Julien and Marco are, but I can’t promise they’re not here. If I get you in my room, I can calm down and take it slow, like I know you need. If I do it here, I can’t promise to be soft.”
“What?” I breathed.
He dipped his face to the curve of my neck, inhaling along my shoulder and throat.
“Have you seen yourself tonight, mama? You look like a little fallen angel, all tits and ass and soft and naughty.” He rocked his hips, prodding my belly with his hard cock. “You feel that?”
I nodded, lost for words. How was this real? How was I affecting this beautiful man so profoundly? It wasn’t fake. He wasn’t pretending. My flirty black dress with the deep V and ruffled hem—perfect for the dancing I’d been promised—had stolen his carefully guarded control.
Heat pooled in the tender area between my thighs.
“I feel it,” I answered.
“Let me take you upstairs, Zadie.”
I nodded. He took my hand in his, brought it to his mouth, and dragged his lips across my knuckles. And when we got to his bedroom, he calmed down and took care. We went slow, and it was different than the first time. Amir and I got lost in each other, touching, tasting, making love. Because that was what it had felt like. Something separate from sex or fucking.
Something kind of beautiful.
Since that night, we’d spent a lot of time in Amir’s bed. I never slept there. I couldn’t until I told Elena and Helen we were a couple, and I just wasn’t ready for that. They wouldn’t approve, and if I were honest, I was still holding my breath, waiting for this to blow up in my face any day now. I’d rather not prove them right when it did.
We drove for longer than I’d expected, and I still had no idea where we were going. I was promised dancing, but that was all I knew. If I ended up at a hoedown at a monster truck show for real, I was walking home.
Somehow, I didn’t picture Amir, in his sleek, tailored black pants and button-up shirt, enjoying monster trucks. Just a hunch.
When we drove through a quaint beach town, Ireallydidn’t know what to expect, and Amir wasn’t spilling. He parked, tucked my arm in his, and led me down a small boardwalk next to the sand to the entrance of a restaurant surrounded by tiki torches.
Live music floated on the ocean breeze, and as the hostess showed us to our table on a patio by the beach, my stomach fluttered with excitement.
A band was set up on the far side of the patio, playing music that sounded like it had come straight from the tropics. Beyond them, a large bonfire was burning on the sand. Couples were dancing on the beach, having made their own dance floor.
“Wow.” When I finished scanning my surroundings, I brought my gaze to Amir’s, finding him already watching me. “I love this.”
“Better than monster trucks?”
I laughed, my cheeks heating with pleasure. “Yes. Unequivocally. Please never take me to a monster truck show. I will never forgive you.”
He took my hand, running his thumb along one of my fingernails. “One day, you’re going to have to tell me what you have against monster trucks. Seems like a deep-seated thing.”
I smiled at him, at the side of himself he was showing me. Instinctively, I knew he hadn’t shown this side to many people, so I would guard it as carefully as a lit match on a windy day.
“Have you been here before?” I asked.
“No. I asked around.”