“What is perfect to me? Well, I read a book on the laws of attraction. You know about it?”
“Tell me,” I say.
“Well, one of the laws of attraction is believing that the present is perfect.”
“The present is perfect?” I twist my lips. “That seems like a pretty hard law to practice.”
“What if it wasn't?” he presses. “What if we just chose to believe it all the time? Right now?”
I smile. “Well,thispresent seems pretty near perfect.”
“It does, doesn't it? This whole day has, actually – minus the knifing.”
I laugh, closing my eyes and shaking my head as Bartlett steps closer to me. “The moment I saw you, I felt like it was perfect. Your smile. Your eyes. The way you looked at me with such anger thinking I had stolen your dog. Like I was a dognapper.” Bartlett grins. “Sure, maybe I wasn’t thinking straight because it was cold as balls outside. That January freeze was setting in. But I don't think it was the frost in the air. I think... I think something else was sweeping through town. I think that was you.”
I shake my head. “Stop it,” I say, pressing my hand to his chest.
But he sets his hands on my waist. “No, I won't stop. I'm thinking maybe you haven’t heard just how good you are. Maybe you spent your life hearing other kinds of things, other stories about yourself, and maybe it's time you heard something new.”
I take in a slow breath. Then I let it out. I listen.
“Because Abby, you make me really happy. Today at my parents' house, I felt really good. And it wasn't because the meatloaf was amazing, which it was. And it wasn't because Plum was cute as hell, which she is. And it wasn’t because I like listening to my siblings argue, which can be entertaining. It was because you were there next to me. There's a groundedness you’ve got that I am drawn to. I can't get enough of it.”
“You mean all that? After one afternoon with me, a girl you just met who came into town on a train?”
“I think you're a girl who reads Jack Kerouac. And I'm a guy who does too. And I think that means we might both be onto something here.”
“The present is perfect,” I tell him.
And then he kisses me and kisses me and kisses me.
My lips part, and God, I hope this man kisses me forever.
5
BARTLETT
Her lips are soft,willing. Smooth. And damn, I don’t want this kiss to end. Her eyes flutter open, and her fingers run through my hair. She smiles in my arms and I know I’m holding her tight.
I don’t wanna let her go. She’s someone I’ve just met and I’m probably breaking 1000 rules.
It’s reckless and it’s ridiculous. It’s also fucking happening. This woman and me, tonight? It’s fucking on. There’s a hunger in her eyes, and there’s a need in my cock, and there’s more than that. There was a connection in the car that whole drive up to my cabin.
“What are you thinking?” she asks me.
“I’m thinking I want you in that bed. Now.”
“I’ve never done this,” she says, her eyes exploring mine.
“Never ever?”
“Never ever. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to,” she says softly. She licks her lips. Her tongue is pink.
Her innocence may not be on the surface, but I can see it now; it’s a hidden layer she wasn’t showing right away, but now that it’s come out, I understand. She is tough on the outside. Soft in the center. And fuck, she’s a virgin.
“I don’t want to press you to do anything you’re not ready to do. We just met. We don’t need to have sex the first night.”
Her hands press to my chest, fingering the buttons of my flannel shirt. She’s licking her lips again. My cock is hard as a rock.