Page 110 of Small Town Firsts
Her teeth flashed in the dark. “Then why can’t I try it?”
I turned toward her. “I want you to. You should be the first one to try it, because as usual, it was made with pieces of meand you. That’s the part I want you to know first. How we work together is one of the best things that has ever happened in my life.”
Her fingers gripped the top of her thighs. “I…wow.”
She looked out on the orchard, then startled a little when I took her hand and brought it up to my cheek. “But work is always going to be secondary to how I feel about you, Sunshine.”
Her head swiveled to me.
I turned her the rest of the way so we were facing one another. “I made a mistake.” She tensed and I pulled her other hand up to cup the other side of my face, covering her hands with mine. “The dark may not be the best way to make you see that, but maybe it really is the answer because I need you to feel what I’m saying.”
“Viking, I don’t...”
My chest eased and the rightness rolled through me. The fact that she called me Viking told me I was on the right path.
I turned my face to press a kiss into her palm, then slid it down to my chest. “I wanted you to see I could be there for you for whatever came at us. To prove that you could count on me.”
She frowned, but before she could speak again, I kept going.
“But I don’t want to be the safe guy in your life. I don’t want to be another Beckett.”
She stiffened. “It’s not like that with Beckett. I keep telling you.”
“I get it.” I laughed. “Finally.”
Her fingertips pressed harder into my bare skin. “You’re confusing me.”
“I’ve been so wound up about your relationship with Beckett that I didn’t see it for what it was. Safe. We aren’t safe.” She tried to pull her hand away, but I held it fast. “We will never be easy. I’m always going to piss you off because I lead with my instincts and you want definites. But I can promise you one thing.”
She twisted her hand away and out from under mine and stood. “Ronan, I have too much to worry about right now. I don’t have room for this too.”
I followed her up and pulled her back against me, my lips brushing her ear. I breathed in her moonflower scent as the words swirled in my chest like all the fireflies flashing in the distance. “Sunshine, if I waited for after the opening to tell you I love you, it would be safe.”
She twisted in my arms to face me, her mouth slack with shock. “You what?”
“I’m not that guy. I came out here and there you are with a forest of fireflies flashing around you. It may as well have been a neon sign. Yes, some of it was for the cider. The name is going to be Firefly, by the way. At least the one I made for you.”
She shook her head.
“I love you. You’ll get used to hearing it. Of course you’ll be hearing it for the next seventy years or so, I’m sure you’ll believe me one of those times. I’ll wait for you to catch up.”
“Seventy?” she squeaked.
“But that’s beside the point. I’m inconvenient and will drive you insane, but I’ll always love you—you’ll never doubt it.” I curled my arm around her waist and dragged her into me so I could brush my nose along hers. “You know it already. Just like you knew to come piss me off in my workshop tonight.”
I brushed my lips over hers. She was stiff in my arms, the need to push me away and run practically vibrating off of her. I waited her out. My hold was firm, but she could back away if she really wanted to.
“Because you know me, Kira. Knew I needed the push to get out of my own way. And you’re right, I was trying to do it all on my own. It’s what I’ve always done, but as I’m learning—I’m way better with you.”
I leaned in for another kiss and this time she opened for me as she relaxed by degrees. Her flavor slid across my tongue and tasted better than any cider could. Even one created with both of us in mind.
Her arms linked around my back as she moaned into my mouth. I buried one hand into all those heavy ribbons of waves in her hair, and the other slid along her throat. My thumb slid along the curve of her jaw to tip it up so I could take her deeper. Her tongue tangled with mine, neither of us willing to submit to the other just yet.
The way she matched me always set my blood firing. The workshop had been a fast and furious coupling of frustration and tension. But here I wanted to show her softness.
I’d believed I’d known love before, but now I knew better. I realized anything before Kira had been a half measure. I gathered her closer, resting her cheek against my chest so I could rest my chin on top of her head.
“You overwhelm me.”
