Page 12 of Wild Rush
“I didn’t give you my number…well I did, but you wouldn’t have gotten it because you were already on your way here—”
“You gave me your number?”
“I called the lodge this afternoon. Left a message for you. They said you weren’t there. The woman didn’t know where you were or when you’d be in but took the message anyway.”
He grinned. “You called me?”
“Ah, yes, I, um…” Heat filled her face. “Didn’t want to leave things the way we did.”
“The only thing wrong with the way we left things was I didn’t have your number.”
“So how did you know where to find me?” She had a feeling his answer would give her another thrill. Especially if it was the way she thought he’d gotten her address.
Rush sighed. “Could we not worry about that? Maybe pretend I got that message with your phone number…”
“As the bar manager, are you supposed to access the reservation system and the guests’ personal information?”
He closed his eyes and lowered his forehead to rest against hers. “No.”
“So you broke the rules to find me. Probably jeopardized your job doing it.”
“Maybe. Yes.”
She smiled. “Thank you.”
His eyes opened, their gazes connecting. “Thank you?”
“Yes. Thank you for wanting to find me so much you would risk being fired.”
***
His job hadn’t entered his mind once he’d decided to come to Baltimore. “I didn’t think about it. The only thing that concerned me was finding you.”
Her eyes lit up along with her smile. “No one’s ever broken the law for me.”
“I’m not sure I broke any laws… Unless you count the speed limits between here and home.” He grinned. “I might have bent those a little.”
Reena’s smile grew and he pulled her into a hug. He loved seeing her happy. She hadn’t looked that way the last time he’d seen her. The memory of her frown as she’d driven away had haunted him all week. Now he was here and she was smiling that sweet, sexy smile he’d spent two weeks soaking up, and he didn’t want to ever see her sad again.
He let her go and stepped back, but not before he made certain he secured her hand in his. “Come on. I want to see this Pat’s you’ve told me so much about.”
“It’s great. Pat Collins and his wife Sunday started it when they moved here from Ireland. They had seven kids, who have all worked in either the pub or the restaurant at some point. Some still do. It’s a family business, and no one who comes through the doors is a stranger. Everyone is treated like family.”
Rush could hear the affection in her voice. Would be able to tell even if she hadn’t talked about the Collinses during their time together, Reena considered them family. If what she’d told him was true, and why would she lie, then theywereher family. The one her great-aunt had introduced her to.
He hated to think of Reena having no one, and while the Collins clan weren’t blood related, he had no doubt they took care of her. He was looking forward to meeting them. Expected to get the third degree from some of the male members.
Smiling, he relished the thought of proving himself worthy of her.
He’d come close to proving he was a douchebag at her house. He couldn’t go more than two steps inside because if he had, he’d have pushed her against the wall and ravaged her. She’d been so sexy in her nervousness. She’d babbled and trembled and her gaze kept darting away from his.
There was no denying her pleasure at seeing him though. Her skin had gotten a rosy flush, her nipples had hardened beneath her shirt and her eyes, whenever they caught his, were dilated, her breathing shallow.
She was such an open book with her emotions. Rush had watched them flicker across her face, in her eyes, and known she’d been as flustered and aroused as she’d been the night they’d been in bed together.
He didn’t doubt he could have had her on her back beneath him within seconds of closing the door, which was why hehadn’tclosed it. They’d already moved fast. This thing between them had definitely lived up to his name, and he wanted—needed—to take a step back. Slow things down and build on what they’d already formed.
Fuck. He’d buried his head in the sand.
The woman beside him wasn’t like any other he’d been with because she wasn’t the fuck-and-leave type. She was the forever kind.
And he’d followed her home.
