Page 31 of Adoring Delaney

“And you need to stop telling me what I need to do,” I snapped.

“Go with your heart.”

“That hasn’t worked out well for me, Carter.”

“Go with it, Laney. Start over with me.”

“What does that even mean? How do we start over?”

“Let me take you out on a date?”

“A date?” I sucked in a breath and reached for the counter, holding on to the edge so tightly my knuckles were turning white. And, yes, I knew I’d stopped the blood flow to my hand because I was staring at it unable to look at Carter.

“Will you go out to dinner with me?” he asked.

I couldn’t help it, I really tried not to laugh at his preposterous question but I failed. My eyes closed and I cackled loud and long.

“So goddamn beautiful when you laugh.”

My eyes flew open and he was in my space. One arm went around my lower back and he hauled me against him. The other went to the back of my neck and he gathered my hair into his hand and he pulled, tilting my face to his.

Holy hell.

Carter Lenox was hot. He’d been hot since he was thirteen. He became super-hot when he was sixteen and started working out. By the time I’d given him my virginity, which was the first time I’d seen him naked, he was crazy-hot. And over the years, he’d continued to work out, making his body even more muscular and that was when he became out-of-this-world hot.

So considering I’d always thought he was the sexiest man I’d ever seen, this new look he had going on, staring at me with an intensity I’d never seen coming from him, made him out of my league hot. He looked part badboy and part my Carter. This mix of the two was doing crazy things to my body. But then, him being close at any time had never failed to turn me on. I was conditioned. This was what always happened. All he needed to do was pull me to him, brush my hair away, and kiss the side of my neck and I was ready for him.

He didn’t even have to work for it. Never had. Since the first time, I’d offered myself to him.

God, I was dumb.

“Please don’t,” I whispered as his mouth lowered to mine. “If you want us to start over, then you have to give me time. I need to think. And if I decide that’s what I want to do, I don’t kiss on the first date, so that means I really don’t kiss before that date even happens.”

He smiled a huge grin and I started to rethink asking him not to kiss me. He let go of my hair and stepped back, but stayed close.

“You don’t kiss on the first date?”

“Nope.”

“How many dates do I need to take you on before I get your sweet mouth?”

“At least ten.”

“Two,” he countered.

“Five,” I returned.

“Deal. Five it is. I’ll pick you up tomorrow at six.” He kissed my forehead and walked out of the kitchen.

What the hell just happened?

“Carter? Wait.”

“See you tomorrow at six, Laney.”

The front door slammed shut and I stayed rooted in place, staring at the takeout bags and six pack of beer.

Seriously? What the hell happened?

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