Page 104 of Tenderfoot

“I’m already sensing that.”

“But I’m not that pretty rich girl.”

“Wrong.”

“I’m not.”

“Babe, you are.”

“I—”

He curled his whole big hand over my mouth.

“You’re that pretty rich girl,” he stated. “You just are. You can’t escape it. But you’re also the girl who gets excited about a fifteen-dollar glass mushroom like I gave her a Tiffany’s diamond.”

I nodded enthusiastically to confirm this, taking his hand with me.

He smiled and took his hand away.

“I’m not like them,” I shared.

“I knew that before I shot my mouth off, babe, I was just searching for shit to set you against me. Definitely knew it after giving you that mushroom.”

I would treasure that mushroom until my dying day.

“Our pizza is getting cold,” I informed him.

“You gonna sleep beside me in my bed without giving me any lip?” he asked, and a surprised giggle erupted out of me.

“Are you going to use your tragic growing up years to get things you want out of me?” I teased.

He pulled me closer and dipped his face to mine. “Every chance I get.”

Another giggle slipped out of me.

“Has to be worth something,” he said through a grin.

He’d gutted me, totally and absolutely, with the little he gave me of his life story.

But since he was grinning, I was going to go with it.

“Totally,” I agreed.

His grin faded. “So, you gonna sleep beside me?”

I took in a breath before I gave in and nodded again.

“Good, baby,” he murmured, warmth and relief and a smidge of smug victory (I’d give him that last because of the first two) glowing in his golden eyes.

He dipped even further, pressed a hard kiss on my mouth, lifted nary an inch, and said, “Now, let’s eat.”

I pushed up, negating that nary an inch, and pressed my own hard kiss to his lips.

And then we ate.

FIFTEEN

“NO ORDINARY LOVE”

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