Page 33 of Pumpkin
Dosia cracked a smile, grateful for his acceptance.
Piper approached then with some to-go boxes and the dessert menu. “Think you have room for some cheesecake?”
“Yes, please!” Pumpkin licked his lips, which caused Dosia’s nipples to perk up again as if begging him to choose them over the cheesecake.
Dosia moved her arms. Despite her padded bra and dark outfit, she feared her nipples were still making themselves known. She noticed the time on her watch and balked. “Oh shit! It’s quarter to nine!”
Everyone turned to stare at her, and Dosia’s cheeks flamed.
“Do you have to be somewhere?” Pumpkin asked, concerned.
Dosia’s heart beat frantically in her chest. What was she to say, that she had promised his daughter she’d be home in time to tuck her in?
“Um, excuse me,” she said hastily.
Rushing away, she quickly pulled her phone out of her purse. The Uber app was still pulled up on the screen after she unlocked it. Stopping in the hall that led to the bathrooms, she scrambled to call Calliope.
It went straight to voicemail.“You’ve reached your local witchy babysitter. Sorry I can’t come to the phone right now, but everything is fine here. JJ is sound asleep after watchingFrozenand getting Great-Grandpa to singLet It Gowith her four hundred times. Go back to your date, Dosia. Enjoy yourself. You deserve it. I’ll leave the backdoor unlocked for you.”
Swallowing hard, Dosia brought her phone down, and with a shaky thumb, cancelled the call. She lifted her chin, closing her eyes, as she tried to convince herself she wasn’t a bad mom. She’dnevermissed a bedtime before.
Never.
A hand on her shoulder caused her to jump.
“It’s just me,” he said softly, his big body pressing against her back like a security blanket. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Dosia breathed in his scent of leather and mint and thatintoxicating scent that was all male. Forgetting herself, she leaned into his embrace. His hands went down her arms, encircling her as he moved himself even closer. A full-body shudder wracked her and he tightened his hold even more, but there was no fear. She wanted him to squeeze more, to vow to never let go.
Slowly, not entirely sure what she was doing or if she should even be doing it, Dosia turned in the circle of his arms. In the dimly lit hallway, she stared up into his dark eyes. She lifted her hands to his face. The rough texture of his beard scraped along her palms and made her think of all the places on her body she wanted to find his beard burn.
“Pumpkin…” His name came out like a question, but she had no idea what she was asking.
He seemed to know. He brought his head down to hers, pressing their foreheads together. They both took a ragged breath. Dosia’s eyes threatened to flutter closed, but she forced them to stay open, not wanting to miss a single second as Pumpkin lowered his mouth to hers.
CHAPTER 7
Dosia groaned as rays of sun hit her closed eyelids. She turned into her pillow, wanting to hide from the world a little bit longer. She needed to get up. Especially after missing JJ’s bedtime last night, she was not going to miss breakfast with her daughter before she dropped her off at school. Additionally, Dosia needed to find Grandma Solstice and ask for her help putting a curse on Calliope.
What. The. Fuck. Had her aunt been thinking? She’dknown. She had to have known. It was the only explanation for her actions. Gods, Dosia felt like an idiot for not seeing it coming, but how wasshepossibly supposed to have guessed that her daughter’s baby daddy would be at the same restaurant? Especially a restaurant Calliope had clearly manipulated Bart the Banker into taking her to. Dosia liked steak but notthat much. Not enough for it to have come up in a casual conversation or mentioned as a food preference for a first date.
She’d known Calliope to make some pretty wild and out there predictions over the years, but the chess game she’d played last night…? Dosia had no idea her aunt was capable ofthat. Which was scary.
As frustrated as Dosia was with her aunt, though, everything thathad happened after Dosia had gotten to the restaurant was on her. Solely and completely.
Thank the gods that almost kiss had been interrupted. Pumpkin’s disappointment had been palpable, but he’d stated it was neither the time nor the place.
What was it about that man that made her lose all her inhibitions? She couldn’tbelieveshe’d just stood there and allowed him to… No, that wasn’t right. That she’d waited for him to… No, that wasn’t right either.
Letting out a groan, Dosia pulled her pillow over her head as she had to face the embarrassing fact that she’dwantedhim. She’d been just as disappointed as he that they’d been interrupted. There were no two ways about it.
But unlike him, she didn’t think it was because it wasn’t the time or the place. Because there was no time or place. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, get involved with him.
Pulling her pillow off her head, Dosia rolled, facing the ceiling again. But…why couldn’t she? Was that instinct? A gut reaction to six years of thinking him an awful person and someone she wouldn’t want her daughter around? Dosia had already admitted she’d been wrong about that.
Fuck. But how did she fix six years of hiding such a huge secret as the man’s daughter? No, it had been a good thing that kiss had been interrupted. Even if shewantedsomething with him—which she wasn’t sure if she did or she didn’t—it wasn’t even a possibility, a consideration, until she told him about JJ.
And Dosia was a big enough coward to admit she wasn’t ready for that yet either. The fear of his reaction was part of it. One night couldn’t change six years of belief at just the snap of her fingers. She still needed to learn so much about him. To come up with a game plan for when she did tell him he had a daughter.
