Double shit! Now my eyes were under the covers with it. I jerked the sheet down to my chest and squeezed my eyes tightly. “You weren’t supposed to know I was peeking. I thought you were asleep.”
He threw the covers back. “You can look all you want.”
I rolled to my stomach and pressed my face into my pillow. “No, I’m good.”
He reached for me and flipped me onto my back before he crawled over me. “Why, yes you are, Miss Archer. You are very good.”
He dropped his mouth to mine and kissed me gently. “How are you still a virgin? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone as horny as you.”
I slapped him across his bare back as I dropped my lower jaw. “I can’t believe you just said that to me.”
He started laughing. “It’s true. You react so strongly to even the simplest touch. I don’t know how you’ve contained it this long.”
“First of all, no guy has ever done those kinds of things to me and secondly, if he had, I don’t think he could have made me feel the way you did. You’re damn good at what you do.”
“I’d love nothing more than to be damn good at it again right now, but I really need to go.” He leaned over and gave me a quick kiss “I’ve got a race tomorrow night and I’ve got to do some fine tuning on my car.”
He got up from my bed in all of his naked glory and walked to my bathroom while I admired him from behind. Ooh. He didn’t take his boxers with him. That meant he had to walk back out to get them and I’d get to see his package in full view.
He walked out of the bathroom toward me and I couldn’t look. My eyes literally wouldn’t leave his face. He was grinning at me and I saw his dimples. “It’s okay. You can look if you want. I promise I looked at you last night. I think I memorized every inch.”
I wanted to, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. “I’m good.”
He reached for his underwear on the floor. “Okay. I’m putting my boxers on. I’m pulling them up slowly. Only a few more seconds and then you’ve missed your chance. Three. Two.” I couldn’t stand it. I had to look before he pulled them all the way up. “One.”
Damn. I waited too long. I didn’t get but about a one second view, but wow. What a view.
He reached for his jeans and pulled them up. “Will you come watch me race tomorrow night? I’ll need a good luck kiss like the one you gave Dane.”
I sat up and tucked the sheet under my arms. “Oh, no. I’ll give you a better one than that. You’ll feel it all the way down to your...toes.”
“Maybe you should practice now so you’ll have it perfected by tomorrow night.” He leaned over and kissed me. “Since your parents are coming home today, does that mean I won’t see you until tomorrow night?”
“I’m sure they’ll have dinner plans for us, so I guess so.”
“Will you be able to make it that long without me doing everything except the deed itself to you?”
I didn’t know. I could see how it could become addictive real quick. “I’ll do my best.”
“There’s something I need to ask you. Since you’re my girlfriend now, could I ask you to be my companion for a banquet on Saturday night?”
“I would love to be your companion. What kind of banquet is it?”
“It’s a ceremony honoring my dad and some of the police officers in this region. It’s sort of a big deal because my dad is being recognized with a special award.”
“Is it black tie?”
“No, it’s semiformal so you won’t get to see me in a tux, but this could be your one and only chance to see me in a suit and tie.”
I’d have to find a way to get away without my parents seeing me in a semiformal dress. That would definitely send up a red flag. “Can I meet you at your house?” I knew how that sounded. In other words, I was telling him to not pick me up at my house because I wasn’t introducing him to my parents.
“Sure.” I heard the hurt in his voice, but it was better to hurt him a little now rather than have my parents forbid me from seeing him. I knew from experience that they weren’t afraid to do that.
He grabbed his T-shirt off my dresser and pulled it over his head. He came back to my bed to sit by me and he ran his fingers down my arm. “God, I don’t want to leave. I wish I could stay here with you in this bed all day, but I have a lot of stuff to do to get my car ready. This next guy isn’t going to be as easy to beat.”
“You sound a little worried.”
He kissed the tip of my nose. “Nah, I’m gonna smoke that clown.”
He got up from the bed and I followed him, wrapping the sheet under my arms. “You don’t have to get up. I can let myself out.” He kissed my forehead. “Go back to bed and sleep a little longer. It was a long night.”
That was the understatement of the year. “Okay, but call me later.”
“I wouldn’t dream of not calling you, Love.”
I watched him walk out the door and when I was sure he was gone, I fell back onto my bed. Love? Was it possible for him to love me so soon? I might not think so except I had the same feelings. I loved him. I knew it deep down in my bones. I loved Nick Hawke, even if the world thought I was crazy.
≈ ≈ ≈
37 hours and 20 minutes. That was approximately how long it had been since I saw Nick and it was too long. I didn’t like being apart from him and talking on the phone wasn’t enough. I needed to see him and touch him and I wouldn’t be happy until that happened.
I wondered if he was as restless as me. He didn’t sound like he was when we talked on the phone and that worried me. Had he grown tired of me already?
Any worries or questions I allowed to creep into my head vanished the moment I saw him coming out of the door to his house. He was as anxious to see me as I was to see him.
He caught me around the waist and lifted me up for a tight hug. “Mmm. I have missed you.”
I squeezed him as tightly as he did me. “Oh, I’ve missed you, too.”
“I didn’t think tonight would ever get here.” He stepped away from me and looked me up and down. I was wearing one of my favorite casual dresses with a denim jacket and a pair of boots. “You look beautiful. I may lose this race because I can’t take my eyes off of you.”
“You better not. How much do you have on it?”
He lifted his brows at me. “I’ve got a ‘G’ on it, my biggest bet yet.”