Page 102 of Bloom

I choke a laugh over the hard lump in my throat. “Uh-huh.”

“Then no.”

Jesus.Jee-sus. He’s got to let go right now before I really, truly lose it and do something embarrassing like cry. Or fall in love with him. Or both.

Sneaking my hands in between our flush bodies, I gently push at his chest. “C’mon. Let’s eat.”

Hunter’s gruff groan does weird things to my internal organs. Raising his head slowly, as though it weighs a ton, he knocks his temple against mine before reluctantly backing up enough so I can hop off the counter. But when I try to move, hands on my shoulders stop me. Warm, wandering hands that trail the length of my torso the same way his eyes do, glinting with appreciation that makes my stomach twist. “Really like this dress, honey.”

Fisting my hands to stop their nervous twitching, I hope I don’t soundcompletelyinsecure. “Yeah?”

Hunter hums, toying with the neatly knotted bow at the center of my back. “Like a present,” he murmurs, a commentthat makes me shiver, that I don’t let myself linger on because there’s only so much a girl can handle.

“And…” I gesture at the utterly domestic picture laid out in his home. “You’re okay with this?”

“Never gonna hear me complain about a beautiful woman making me dinner.” He tugs on the bow, and I feel the fabric give a little. “Next time, I’ll cook.”

Next time, next time, next time,my silly brain chants so loudly, I start looking for some anti-bright sides. Some reality checks. Anything to stop the warning chime of impending, inevitable heartbreak ringing in my ears. “It’s not too relationship-y?”

The gentle petting stops. “You’re pretty caught up on that word.”

“I just don’t wanna make you uncomfortable. Make you think I’m expecting things.”

Which I’m not. I’m not letting myself. I’m not ruining this, whatever it is, by getting greedy.

“I know you don’t want a relationship,” I continue, like a car crash that never ends. “But I don’t know what youdowant, y’know?”

“That’s easy. You.”

Internally, I sigh. What the hell? How am I supposed to be pragmatic, to stay some level of detached, when he says things like that? “I’m serious, Hunter.”

“So am I.”

“Really?”

The sweetest, warmest smile I’ve ever seen lights up his face. Palming my cheeks, Hunter stoops to kiss me, and that’s just as sweet. “Really.”

30

He fell asleep dreaming about her.

He’s not entirely sure he ever woke up.

I wakeup wrapped in the muggy kind of warmth that makes you feel like you can’t breathe.

Briefly wondering if I’ve somehow been transported to a sauna in my sleep, I pry my eyes open only to be met with complete darkness. When I blink and my vision doesn’t clear, I twist my head, barely able to move it an inch, and my cheek brushes something smooth.

Smooth like skin.

Skin that reeks of my favorite scent.

It only takes a second to figure out where I am, why I’m so warm, and what the incessant weight pressing me into the bed is. Thehowof it all takes a little longer to decipher. I distinctly remember falling asleep curled up near the edge of the bed. Like, the very edge. Practically as far from Hunter as I could get. A feat I’m pretty sure I only got away with because by the time I emerged from the bathroom—face washed, teeth brushed, freak-out had—that long day had already caught up with Hunter and he was fast asleep.

With him sprawled on what I assumed was his side of the bed, I claimed the other and, taking up as little space as possible, recited the name of every horse on the ranch until exhaustion eventually took the wheel.

At some point in the night, things changed. We must’ve wriggled around because now, I’m sprawled flat on my back, starfishing in the middle of the bed, with every weighty pound of Hunter’s bulky body smothering me.

The exact logistics are a little fuzzy, but I think his head is somewhere above mine. I think it’s a cushiony pectoral muscle that my face is smushed against. Our legs are definitely tangled together, mine spread so indecently to accommodate the huge body between them, I’d blush if I wasn’t already on fire. One of my hands is trapped between us, and the other…

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