Page 178 of Wildest Dreams

I stroke my free palm over the broad muscles of his chest, closing my fingers around the unbuttoned collar of his shirt and giving him a little tug, wanting him closer.

“Yeah,” I breathe out, even though I can’t deny that I’m a little nervous.

And Tanner can tell.

Tanner releases my hand from his so that he can cup both of his palms around my cheeks, tilting my face upwards before pressing a slow kiss to my lips.

I woke up this morning to the sound of quiet brushstrokes. I wrapped the thick emerald quilt over my chest as I sat up on one elbow, fluffing my hair as I peeked down from the bed.

Tanner had gotten up at the crack of dawn to paint over the area that he had fixed with his dad’s friend Jason Coleson yesterday – and to the delight of the happy butterflies in my chest Tanner was wearing nothing but his jeans. He heard the hitch in my breathingand turned to look at me over his shoulder, his tan back muscles flexing as he grinned, and then hunched back down to finish painting the drywall.

Now, with my mom less than five minutes away, Tanner is no longer shirtless or wearing his country boy jeans.

He was almost shy when he had told me this morning that he’d brought some of his clothes back with us from when we left his parents’ house the other day, and then he went on to cautiously show me that he’d taken one of his white shirts and a pair of navy suit pants that he had often had to wear when the Carter Ridge Rangers played hockey games at other Division I colleges.

He also reiterated that he would give me and my mom some space if I wasn’t ready to introduce him yet, but I could tell from the frantic bounce in his knees as he sat on the edge of the bed that he really wanted me to have him with me.

So now he’s towering over me at the bathroom counter, wearing a pristine white shirt that can barely contain his giant biceps, and deep navy suit pants that accentuate the thick muscles of his thighs.

His hair is pushed back to expose the perfect golden skin of his forehead, and his large palms are sliding down my throat, squeezing me gently as his gaze rakes me up and down.

Today I’ve opted to wear my long baby pink sundress with the halter neck and flirty skirt – partially because it’s the kind of pretty and demure outfit that I think is appropriate to wearin front of my mom after two months of not seeing her, and partially because it drives Tanner wild.

I tilt my head to the side, making my ponytail swish back and forth behind me, as Tanner pushes his hard body up against mine. His chest rises and falls rapidly as his fingers toy with the little button at the back of my neck.

“You look beautiful,” he says quietly, his eyes meeting mine.

“Thank you,” I whisper back to him. “You look so hot my mom is probably going to have a crush on you.”

He presses our foreheads together, chuckling quietly as his palms move down to massage my waist.

We stay like that for a few moments, the only sounds Tanner’s handsome laughter and my light quick-paced breathing, the rustle of the larch tree leaves filtering in through the small window on this quiet overcast day.

In the darkness of the intimate bathroom – just Tanner and me and the beautiful black tiles shining on the walls around us – I let my breathing slow, feeling his calmness radiate into me, and I soak up this quiet secret moment as I wait for the sound of my mom’s tires to appear outside.

He presses another kiss to my cheek and says in his deep voice, “Baby, let’s go downstairs.”

I nod up at him and let him take my hand, leading the way.

My mom has been slowly making her way over to Larch Peak over the past two months, checking in on all of the family’s properties on route, like a sort of multimillionaire road trip because she prefers to travel by car rather than plane. Not because she’s afraid of flying, which she isn’t, but because she hates how detrimental air travel is for the welfare of the Earth.

So she prefers to drive her two-hundred-thousand dollar eco sedan instead.

I glance around the open-plan areas of the lake house’s bottom floor, checking that everything looks perfect for beforeshe arrives. Tanner wraps me up in his arms when I finally hop down from the last step, crushing kisses over my cheeks and making me giggle into distraction.

“I love you,” he murmurs, taking my wrist in his fist, and tugging me behind him over to the front door.

He opens it up, letting me step out onto the porch first, and then he places his hands over my hips, his large chest rising and falling steadily behind my ponytail as I nervously twiddle with my fingers, eyes on the dirt road between the trees.

The sleek front of my mom’s car gleams into view and, even though it wasn’t built for off-roading, it glides effortlessly along the head of the lake. It has as much grace and speed as a multi-million dollar race car.

I quickly smooth a hand down my swishing ponytail, feeling my nerves spike as the car pulls up right in front of the porch.

Tanner breathes out a quiet laugh.

“Jesus, baby,” he murmurs, the hint of a grin tugging at his mouth. “Is your mom in the F1 or something?”

I give him a scowly little look and he smiles wider, palms caressing my hips.

---