Looking at Bella, I would’ve never taken her for a junk food junkie. This woman surprised me at every turn. “Hungry?”
“I wanted the full carnival experience.” She licked her lips and I saw that she had a tiny piece of cotton candy in the corner of her mouth. Her tongue didn’t quite reach it before she smiled with a sigh. “But I’m full now.”
I lifted my hand, cupped her chin, and swiped the pad of my thumb across her bottom lip, catching the offending sugary fluff from her mouth before lifting my thumb to my own lips and licking it off.
Her pupils dilated and her cheeks flushed.
Damn.
“Well, if that’s what you want, that’s what you shall have. Shall we?” I held my arm out and, to my great relief, she dropped her treats in the trash and then threaded her arm through mine.
Was it presumptuous of me to assume that she wasn’t here with anyone? Maybe. Was it bold to assume that I could touch her, even if it was to remove a piece of food from her mouth? Probably. But considering my dick had been in her mouth less than twelve hours ago, I figured I was alright.
“So how was your first day in Firefly?”
She turned her head toward me, her brow scrunched. “How did you know it was my first day?”
I couldn’t tell her the truth. I couldn’t tell her that if she’d been here before today, I would’ve known it in my bones. Just like I knew that she hadn’t been to the bar, and that I would see her again.
It was on a different level than logic. It was something else.
Something I wasn’t sure I even believed in, when it came down to it. Fate. Destiny. Because If I believe in those things, then why wouldn’t I believe in a curse?
“It’s a small town. I would’ve seen ya around,” I answered. Best to keep it simple.
“Yeah, but you have over a half a million tourists visit every year.”
I had to grin. I knew that she’d read that in one of the pamphlets.
“Then let’s just say it was a lucky guess.”
Her left shoulder lifted in a coy shrug. “It was nice. I’m here visiting an old friend.”
I almost asked who, since the odds were good that I knew them. But I’d learned at a young age never to ask a question that I didn’t want the answer to. And hell if I wanted to hear that she was in town visiting a male friend. Maybe even an ex.
Never in my life had I felt any sort of jealousy, romantic or otherwise. When my friends would get the new brightest and shiniest toys for Christmas, or actual birthday parties when I was lucky to get a store-bought cake and pizza, I never envied them.
And I was never one of those kids that didn’t share, either. I’d give away what little I had to anyone in need.
I didn’t have a possessive bone in my body. I’d always loved seeing the people around me happy. I got off on it. But right now, the thought of Bella visiting a man from her past made me want to beat my chest like Tarzan, throw her over my shoulder, and swing from vine to vine with her.
Since I couldn’t do that, I figured the next best thing would be to change the subject. “So, Bella, what would you like to do next? For your full carnival experience?”
“Ferris wheel!” Her eyes danced with enthusiasm.
It was sweet, endearing even, to see someone so excited to ride on it. I supposed I was jaded since I’d taken hundreds of trips around it in my lifetime. But, just like sailing around the gorgeous coastline of my island home, it was a whole new experience seeing it through someone else’s eyes. It made it fresh and exciting.
And that was magnified a hundred fold because that person was Bella.
My dick jumped in my pants at the thought of being snuggled up close to her, seated in a tiny cart. I tried to communicate to him that just because I was thinking thoughts that brought him to life didn’t mean he was going to get to make an appearance, but he was having none of it. Every step we took toward the attraction, more blood was headed down to my southern regions.
By the time we got up the steps to board the enormous, metal circle, I was at a full half-chub.
“Jimmy Comfort! What are you doin’ here, kid?” Calvin had been running the wheel for at least a decade before I was even born. When he caught sight of the woman behind me, he smiled wider. “Oh, I see. Evenin’, young lady.”
I slipped my hand to the base of her back. “Calvin this is Bella.”
“Isabella,” she corrected as she reached out to shake his hand.