Page 126 of Dove
He nodded, stubble scraping across my cheek as he confessed gruffly in my ear, “I couldn’t tell you how good you really looked in it back then, or how much I ached to take it off you, but I can now.” His hand skimmed over my hip. A burning tease through fabric.
“Josh,” I whimpered, reaching for him, but he grabbed my hands before I could make contact, maneuvering them so they were trapped behind my back. The position caused my front to press fully against his.
“When you say my name like that,” he murmured against my lips, “there’s nothing I want more than to say screw it and take you back into that house so I can show you all the things I’ve imagined doing to you.”
My head was nodding in permission before he’d finished, and I surged up eagerly on my tiptoes, searching for something deeper than just a skim of lips. I pouted as he pulled back.
“But I won’t,” he stated resolutely, hands still holding my arms hostage behind my back in makeshift cuffs, “because this is the first time I’m taking you out on a date, Dove Riley, even if the world doesn’t know it, and I want to do it right.”
As excited as I’d been about today, it was nothing compared to the visual Josh’s teasing words had conjured. “We can skip it,” I suggested quickly. “Go somewhere else another time.”
“No.” He let my arms go, slipping a hand into one of mine and leading me around to the passenger side. He opened the door for me, ever the gentleman.
I paused before getting in, Josh a solid warmth at my back. I peered over my shoulder at him. “We’re not taking the truck?”
“Not today,” Josh answered apologetically. “When I revved her up this morning, she was making a mysterious knocking sound. Figured we’d play it safe by taking this.” His hand skimmed down my spine, settling on my lower back. “That alright?”
His soothing touch couldn’t erase how much I disliked this vehicle. It wasn’t that Ihatedit per se, it was just a painful reminder of a time where Josh wasn’t mine; when he was out of reach and far away, off having a life without any trace of me in it. Looking at it gave me the same feeling as what I would imagine someone ripping the heart out of your chest felt like. Painfully hollow.
“It’s fine,” I assured in a voice stronger than I actually felt. There was no use explaining that to Josh, because if I did, he’d be pulling out the truck and praying it didn’t break down on us, just so I wouldn’t have the aching reminder lingering as I sat in the passenger seat.
It was just a car, and besides, Josh was here with me. Sometimes you had to let the past stay in the past, even when it wanted to hang overhead like an angry storm cloud.
His hand remained a steadying weight on my back, guiding me into my seat. He grabbed my seat belt and reached to click it in. As he stretched over me, he took a subtle inhale, letting out a groan so soft I barely heard it, but the exhale was a minty, enticing puff over my lips. He remained hovering over me, inches away. The air between us crackled with sexual tension, a physical thing that grew, brewing in the short distance between us.
“If we’re going to do this,” he explained tightly, eyes peeling away from my lips to find mine, “we have to be on our best behavior.” It sounded like he was talking more to himself than to me.
I remembered reading once that smell was one of the strongest human senses, and now I knew why. This close it was easy to catch a hint of the clean, masculine scent of him. Just one whiff was powerful enough to have my body moving of its own accord, but I quickly curbed the impulse, sitting on my hands sothey wouldn’t reach for him again. “Best behavior,” I chirped in agreement.
Josh smiled. “That’s my girl.” His words shot a jolt of warmth down my body that settled into an aching throb at the apex of my thighs. He leaned in, rewarding me with a chaste kiss that had me straining against the seatbelt across my chest for more.
That ache for more lingered, intensifying as Josh’s hand stayed glued to me the second he hopped in beside me and started toward town. His touch was the slowest torture, the sweetest tease, and I was afraid neither of us would get through this without slipping up.
“So much for this being a local event,” Josh griped beside me as we continued to idle in traffic. “When did this become so damn popular? I swear we haven’t moved half a mile in ten minutes.”
I couldn’t think with Josh’s hand still resting on my knee, fingers flexing with his growing impatience.
“Uh,” I racked my brain for an answer, willing it to remember words. My mind had been too busy replaying the way Josh had teased me earlier by mentioning there were things he’d thought about doing to me, while simultaneously supplying just what exactly that might entail. In vivid detail. “I think someone included it on a list ofTop Hidden Gems in Pennsylvaniaa year or two ago. Been crazy ever since.”
Josh blew out an annoyed breath. “I know it used to get some draw from the city, but this is insane.”
“Double-edged sword, I suppose.” I observed the endless line of brake lights in front of us. “Brings in a lot of revenue for the town, but kind of takes away from what it used to be like.”
“Guess all things change with time, don’t they?” Josh mused, his fingers absentmindedly stroking my skin.
“Yeah,” I agreed quietly. “I guess they do.” There might have been a touch of melancholy in my voice but damn it if I didn’t know exactly how much the hand of time could change things.
As if he heard the somber tone of my voice, Josh’s hand squeezed my knee.
His touch remained on me as we remained stuck in traffic. As we crept forward at a sloth’s pace, his fingers stroked a path up and down my skin that grew slightly maddening.
I grabbed his hand, holding it in my lap. Perhaps it was first date jitters, or the fact we’d have to act like weweren’ton one, but something was bothering Josh. I could tell. Normally he was levelheaded and patient.The fact he was up in arms abouttraffic,of all things, was odd.
“What are you looking forward to most tonight?” I asked in an effort to distract him, but I was also interested in his answer.
“Tonight?” he echoed with a quick glance over at me. “At the festival?”
“Of course at the festival, Josh.” I chuckled, throwing him a jokingduhlook. “Where else?”
