Page 60 of Wreck Me
His sisters had yet to find true love, and he thought they were better for it. His cousin Emma and her fiancé, Shane, and Landon and his wife, Iris, had managed to defy the odds so far. But he thought of them as special cases. It just didn’t work that way for him.
Life was full of curveballs especially when it came to love. And love always had an expiration date.
Megan was quiet, but continued to stay snuggled up against his arm. In spite of his stance on love, he enjoyed her company, both in and out of bed. He wanted to be near her, and he thought about her constantly when they weren’t together. She made a mess of his kitchen, took pictures of everything, generally left disarray everywhere, but she was kind, giving, compassionate, and a damn sex goddess in bed. She drove him crazy in all ways possible.
It should have made him want to find her another place to stay for the duration of her time in town. But for the life of him, he couldn’t bring himself to push the issue. Maybe it was because he was enjoying life for the first time in a long time. Maybe it was because he was going into this with his eyes wide open, knowing there was an expiration date to this and therefore his heart was safe.
Whatever it was, he wanted her near and was going to keep it that way as long as he could.
Megan pulled him to the hot dog stand where they loaded up on hot dogs, chips, and cold Cokes. They followed that up by funnel cakes—cinnamon sugar for her and powdered sugar for him—and they sat on a bench, people watching and him telling her the life stories of the people he knew. Some of them he embellished just to hear her laugh. It was a contagious laugh that made him join in. It also never failed to make his hands itch to touch her in some way—a brush of a hand or rubbing the ends of her ponytail with his fingers.
Fortunately for him, she appeared to feel the same way. She leaned into him whenever she found an opportunity and sat close to him, her scent mingling with the fragrant night air to wind him up a little more. Much to his surprise, he found he loved every minute of it.
When it was time to walk to the center of the square for the pumpkin contest winner reveal, he took her hand and lifted it to his lips, kissing each knuckle on her soft, delicate but competent hands.
Her lips curved into a smile. “Hmmmm…what’s that for? I like it.”
He grinned against her hand. “I’m having a great time tonight. It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed the festival. I’m usually working it.”
She leaned into him and kissed his cheek. “I’m having a great time too. Thank you for asking me to come.”
His grin turned wicked as he turned his head, bringing their lips within a hair’s breadth apart. “Nice choice of words, beautiful. But I’ll never ask you to come, I’ll demand it.” His voice was low and husky, her breath coming in small pants from between those lips where the red lipstick had faded.
Her gaze, blazing with want, went from his lips to his eyes. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Reynolds.”
He half growled, half chuckled, leaning even closer so that their lips brushed. “You and that fucking mouth, Gentry.”
“Isn’t it illegal for a deputy to be making out on a public bench?”
“Now, Ame, why would you cockblock the poor guy? He hasn’t gotten laid in years.”
Aidan froze and sighed heavily before leaning back on the bench, away from Megan and her bewitching heat. He glared at Amelia and Del—the two biggest antagonizers of the group—who stood about ten feet away with all of his siblings and his cousin Emma.
Fuck. This wasn’t exactly how he wanted to introduce Megan to the rest of his family.
Wait. Did he want to introduce her to them? That meant things, didn’t it?
No. Hell, she’d met most of them already just by being in this small town where his family had been entwined since they’d founded it centuries ago.
See? No introductions to be made, except for Grace, who stood next to Amelia, trying to hide a grin.
“Leave him alone, Ames,” Grace said, coming to his rescue. “Can’t you see he’s trying to woo the poor girl?”
Jesus, her too?
So much for a rescue. With another sigh, he stood, Megan’s hand still in his own. She followed suit, biting her lip as though trying not to laugh, as they joined the group.
“Megan, you know Amelia since you’re in her place every day, but her lookalike pain in the ass is Grace. And the other one standing next to Amelia who wisely never said a word is my cousin Emma. Where’s Shane?”
She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “He’s in line getting me a hot chocolate.” Emma held out a hand. “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Megan.”
Megan returned the handshake and waved at the others with a huge smile. “Hi, it’s so nice to meet you guys. I’ve heard so much about you. All of you.” She looked up at him, mischief in her eyes, dropping her voice to a stage whisper. “Now, which one did you say was trolling for a date at this thing?”
Noah and Del burst out laughing like the juveniles they were, and something he couldn’t identify swelled in his chest. His girl fit right in. He grinned back at her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
“Oh, that would be Amelia. Definitely.”
Amelia’s jaw dropped and her eyes narrowed on her brother. “You’re going to pay for that,” she said, pointing at him, which only served to make him laugh, causing the whole group to gawk at him.
