Page 134 of My Brother's Enemy
“Yeah. I did ask you to marry me.” His grin turned rueful.
I scoffed. “That’s the conversation we’re not talking about."
“That’sthe conversation? Of all of our conversations, it’s that one that you want to avoid?” But he was grinning, and I relaxed.
I flicked my eyes up. “You’re messing with me.”
“I’m not.” His tone was serious. So was his face. His stare was piercing. “I meant the marriage thing, but I can tell you’refreaked out so I’ll settle for bugging you about what kind of apartment you want to get.”
I groaned. This had been a whole conversation when we were coming back from the bar last night. “Not this again. You know I don’t care.”
“We’ll keep talking about it.” He reached forward, starting the engine and I fell silent. When he pulled onto the interstate, he said, “Are you a romantic person?”
“No.” My answer was automatic.
He cringed. “Ouch. Okay. Uh… Why not?”
I shrugged. “No one’s done anything romantic like that for me. It’d probably just make me uncomfortable now.”
He began chewing on his bottom lip as he drove to my hotel. He’d brought over a good amount of his clothes so we didn’t have to go to his hotel as much. There’d be a conversation at one point if he should cancel his hotel, unofficially move into mine. That would depend on how long it took to look for a new place.
“Okay. I think I know what we can do. Some of it will be something we both like, outside of sex, and then the rest I’ll see if you can start liking romantic gestures.” He nodded to himself, his mind made up. “You go up to the room and dress—shit. I need to make sure I can do what I want to do. Uh… Dress comfortable, but cute. Outside clothes.”
“Cute, but comfortable and outside? Those don’t normally go together. Not here. We got snow this week.”
“I know but be flexible. And grab your skates.”
We were pulling into the parking lot and as he went to the front entrance, I studied him before exiting. The front door men were coming to the truck, but I waved them off before opening the door. “Skates?”
He flashed me a wicked grin, but I caught the delight in them. “We’re doing something we both like first.”
I sat with that and nodded because that sounded good to me. Heading to the room, I went to the shower first. We’d be skating, but he said this was a date and after I cleaned up and was doing my hair, I couldn’t deny that my stomach was in flutters. Nervousness, but also excitement. Going on a date with someone I knew that I’d have fun with was a whole different ordeal than a normal date. Plus, skating. There was nothing like feeling like I could fly and skating gave me that sensation.
I had pulled on some jeans when the door opened. Tyler came inside. “We’re all set.”
He ducked into the bathroom, but he had showered at the rink so I knew he wouldn’t take long before he would be ready to go. When he was dressed and stepped into the living room where I was standing, he took one look at me. His mouth had opened, but he saw me and the words dried up. His eyes went hungry before he gave me the most wicked grin ever. “Fuck, Connors.” He visibly swallowed, his gaze trailing down me again andslowlyrising. “You want to actually leave this room, you shouldn’t have let me see what you’re wearing.”
I wasn’t wearing anything extravagant, but since this was a date and the public did know about us, I indulged. I was wearing a Grays sweatshirt. His Grays sweatshirt. His number. His name. It was in their “away” colors so most of it was a yellow/gold color, but I was also wearing some legging jeans and some cute white sneakers. My hair was pulled back in a loose French braid.
“I can take it off, if you’d like?”
His smirk was wolfish, sending tingles through me. “Yes, you will.” His tone was dirty and suggestive. “Not until after we get back, but Jesus, if I can keep my hands off of you through the night, it’ll be a damn miracle.”
I began edging to the bedroom. Maybe this was too on-the-nose.
He blocked me. “Nope. No fucking way. I’m going to have a raging hard-on all night but now seeing you in this and there ain’t anything else I want to see you in until I can peel this off of you tonight.” He tugged me to him, bending his forehead to rest against mine lightly. “I love seeing you wear my number. My name. My woman. Fuck. I really fucking love you.”
I was getting light-headed. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He breathed against me, letting me feel him. “Ignore me tonight because I’m going to be having so many filthy thoughts. It’s going to be torture, but I booked you—we need to go now if we’re going to make it out of this hotel room.” His tone was rough and urgent.
I had a fleeting reminder to grab my skates and then we were off for our date.
77
RAIN
Iwasn’t surprised when he took us to an indoor ice rink. He said he had booked something, but judging by the full parking lot, it wasn’t this rink. As we went inside, the front entryway was full of people. Grandparents. Parents. Teenagers. Little kids were running around. Some were putting on skates. More than a few glanced our way and once they saw Tyler, they didn’t look away. A small buzz started and I waited to see if people would approach Tyler. He didn’t give them a chance. He took my hand and led me to the front desk where he paid for the general skate admission price. The attendant gave the price, looking and sounding bored.
