Page 85 of Pour Decisions
“Butwhy?” I asked, genuinely incredulous.
Delia gave me a sad smile, and I mentally reeled myself in. I wanted her so badly I could barely think straight. I needed to hear her making those breathy, gasping sounds into my mouth. To have her digging her nails into my hair with my face between her thighs. But if she was saying no, then that wasn’t happening.
At least, not tonight.
Now that I’d had a taste, I needed the whole fucking meal. I’d do anything she wanted to get it, including pumping the brakes.
“We’re drunk, Owen,” she reminded me, tilting her head to press a kiss to the underside of my jaw. “And when we fuck for the first time, it’s not going to be a rushed, one-night-in-a-hotel hookup. When we fuck for the first time, Owen Lawless”—she tiptoed her fingers down my chest and abdomen promisingly, though she stopped well short of my waistband—“we will be spendingdaysin bed.”
I bent to nuzzle her neck, inhaling a deep breath of the perfume that lingered on her skin. I wanted to get lost right here, in her, but I made myself pull away after stamping her scent on my memory. Instead of hiking her dress up around her waist, hauling her into my arms, and sliding my fingers deep in herpussy, I linked my hand with hers. Lifting it to my mouth, I pressed a kiss to the back, then wordlessly opened the door and escorted her out.
When we reached her door, I faced her. “Sure you don’t want to at least spend the night with me?Sleep only, scout’s honor,” I said, raising three fingers.
Delia shook her head with a giggle. “You’re too tempting.”
I dropped a kiss on her forehead. “The feeling is mutual, Whiskey,” I said with a wink when I pulled back. I gave her hand a squeeze, then let go. “Good night.”
“Good night, QB.”
In the week that followed our trip to New York, I quickly realized I should’ve tried harder to get Delia to spend the night with me there. Upon touching back down on Michigan soil, we were both so busy with other shit that we barely saw each other in passing, much less had time to spenddaysin bed, as Delia had promised.
By the end of that week, I’d had enough. I was edgy and irritable, and the people around me were starting to take notice.
Namely, my best friend.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Cal asked that Friday morning.
We were seated in my office, going over financial projections for the holiday season. Or, rather, Cal wastryingto do that. My mind was a thousand miles away, or however far away Delia was from me at that moment.
“I kissed Delia,” I blurted. “In New York. Well, she kissed me first, and then we started making out right there in the hallway.”
“What hallway?”
“At the hotel, dipshit,” I said. “I drop all of that on you, and that’s the part you latch onto?”
“Sorry,” Cal said. “I’m just…surprised? But also not? You guys have been dancing around each other for months. Honestly, it’s about time.”
Somehow needing that reassurance from a man who was already inextricably linked to the Delatou family, I found myself relaxing with Cal’s words. “How do you think Amara is going to feel about it?”
Cal scoffed. “Why would she care? Whatever you guys had was over ages ago. We’re happy, and now it’s your turn.”
I grinned. “Thanks, man.”
“So what’s the problem, then?” he asked. “Obviously something is bugging you.”
“Major case of blue balls,” I admitted. “We didn’t take things further than kissing in New York because…well, thewhyisn’t important. But we’ve been back for a week and I’ve hardly seen her, much less had the chance to get her alone.”
“So call her. Ask her on a date. It’s Friday afternoon, you’re the boss, and she works for herself. Make the time right now.”
I considered that only briefly before realizing Cal was right, and that it truly was that simple. Before I’d even made a move to reach for my phone, Cal was collecting his things and shooting me a hasty “goodbye” over his shoulder as he disappeared.
Delia answered on the first ring.
“Hey, stranger.”
I smiled, her voice a balm to my frayed nerves. “Hey yourself. What’re you up to?”
“I was actually just about to call you,” she said. “I’ve got some mood boards for the distillery decor made up, and I wanted to run my ideas by you.”
