Ten

Morgan

I stood, frozen in place, as Patrick walked out of my office. David was giving me a questioning look that I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know why Patrick was here, what he’d come for, or why he’d refused to talk to me when he was the one who asked.

Honestly, I couldn’t even believe he was here. After seeing me last night at Flips, he’d stormed out of the bar, leaving me alone with Travis. I’d felt so twisted up about the exchange that I ended the night shortly after that. After Patrick’s apparent jealousy, I hadn’t had the same gusto that I’d felt when I first started the date. Travis had done his job…maybe a little too well and made me realize that dating wasn’t really for me right now.

“You think he’s okay? He looked kind of pale,” David said.

“I have no idea.”

“Maybe I should check on him?”

I shook my head. “No, let me do it. I’ll be right back. Just…wait here.”

Without waiting for his reply, I hurried down the hallway to the elevator and found Patrick standing there with his arms crossed over his chest. He whirled around as I approached. And seeing his uncertainty infuriated me. I didn’t even know why.

All this time, I’d wanted him to see me…to chase me down…to want me. Now, I’d finally tried to let him go, and he was giving me all the signs that we should be together. And, also, acting so strange—arguing at church, randomly showing up to talk to Austin, blowing up on me at the bar—and, now, this? What the hell?

“What’s your problem?” I snapped.

“My problem?” he demanded.

“Yeah! What are you doing here? Last night might have been an accident, but this isn’t. And, when you came up to see Austin earlier this week…that wasn’t either. So, if you have something to say, why don’t you just spit it out?”

“Yeah, I came here on purpose. I came to see you. I came to talk to you.”

“Then, why did you run out so fast?” I asked in frustration.

“Do you really have to ask that?” He shot me an incredulous look.

“I don’t want to play games, Patrick.”

“You think I’m playing games?” he asked in exasperation. “Two guys in two days, Mor, and I’m the one playing games?”

“Two guys?” I asked, brows furrowed.

“Sorry, don’t let me keep you from your dinner date tonight.”

I shook my head. “I don’t have a date tonight. And, not that it’s any of your business, my date last night basically ended after you left.”

Something like relief crossed his face and then disappeared. “What about David?”

“What about David?”

“Thai. Dinner. Tonight,” he ground out.

“Oh my God,” I gasped out with a light laugh. “It’s not a date. It’s David. I’m his boss. He’s my CFO.”

“As if that has ever stopped anyone.”

“It’s not like that,” I reassured him. Then, I sighed. “I don’t even know why we’re having this conversation. Why do you even care who I date?”

“Come here,” he said, his voice low, soft, and seductive.

It was a tone I’d definitely never heard from him before.

“Why?” I asked, guarded.

He reached out and pulled me closer to him. I stumbled forward on my high heels and nearly fell into his arms. His hands ran down my suit jacket, across my open palms, and then back up. I shivered.

What was happening? Oh my God, was this happening? Was this even real?

“I made a mistake,” he told me.

“You did?”

He leaned forward and ran his jaw across my cheek. His five o’clock shadow scratched me. I had to close my eyes to keep from groaning. His lips moved to my ear, and he grazed the sensitive shell. My whole body came alive.

“Yes. Last week, you thought I rejected you.”

“You did,” I whispered. The hurt unmistakable in my voice.

“I thought I was saving you from yourself. But that wasn’t the case, was it?” he asked, his eyes moving back to mine. Our mouths only inches apart.

All I could do was shake my head. I’d absolutely wanted him. In every way.

“You wanted to kiss me then, right?”

“Yes,” I admitted.

“And you want to kiss me now.”

I swallowed. “Yes.”

“Good. I can work with that.”

I laughed a breathy little thing that made his eyes crinkle in satisfaction. “I thought that we couldn’t do this and that I deserved someone else and all that.”

“Still true.” His thumb dragged across my bottom lip.

“What’s changed then?”

“I thought you were making a drunken mistake. And then I spent a week without you. A week where you were my every thought. Where I had to watch your indifference. Where I had to watch you with some other guy. And I decided…I didn’t like that, and I didn’t want that. We still probably shouldn’t do this…but I want to.”

A chill ran through me at his words. Goose bumps erupted on my bare arms. I was putty in his hands. I’d thought that last week was my last chance. That Patrick would never be interested in me. Who knew that a week apart was all he needed to see the light?

“Are you going to kiss me then?” I asked.

He leaned forward until our lips were almost touching. I held my breath and waited. I was anxious with anticipation and desperate for that moment I’d been waiting for, for so long.

I felt the lightest touch of his lips on mine before he said, “No.”

“Oh my God, you’re killing me.” I pushed him away from me.

“You know what you’re going to do?”

“Tell you to shove it?” I joked.

He grinned. “You’re going to cancel your dinner plans with David.”

“Patrick.”

“And then you’re going to come over to my house, and I’m going to cook you dinner.”

“You are?”

He nodded. “You probably haven’t eaten all day anyway.”

“I’ve eaten! And more than kale and Skittles.”

“Mor?”

I laughed. “All right, all right. Dinner it is. Let me tell David.”

I walked back to my office, silently pleading with myself not to freak out. I didn’t know what was going on with me and Patrick, but I needed some serious chill if I was going to find out.

“Everything all right?” David asked.

“Yeah, it’s fine, but I’m going to need a rain check on dinner.”

David raised his eyebrows. I could see him piecing together everything that had happened.

“I see. Okay.”

“Sorry that we never got to what you wanted to talk to me about. Did you want to talk now?”

He shook his head. “Rain check. Go have fun. You’ve earned it.”

“All right. Are you sure? I feel bad about canceling.”

“It’s all right. Maybe I’ll see if Sutton wants to get dinner.”

“Sutton?” I asked curiously.

“Yeah. We’ve been hanging out some…when I can coax her out of the house.”

“I didn’t realize that.”

“I remember that day as clearly as anyone else. I didn’t even know her then, but now that I do,” he said with a dreamy look in his eye, one I’d seen many a guy have about Sutton, “I want to make this time as easy as possible for her.”

“That’s really nice of you, David. I’m sure she and Jason appreciate it.”

He frowned. “I don’t need appreciation. She has enough to worry about, and that little boy needs all the love he can get.”

“I know. I worry about her.”

“Well, hey, don’t worry about her tonight. Go have fun with Patrick,” he said with a wink.

I blushed. “Mind not mentioning this to my brothers?”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Thanks. I’m not ready to have three overbearing alpha men looking over my shoulder before I’m ready. Trust me.”

“I could see that. Have a good time.”

“Thanks. Night!”

I waved good-bye and then headed downstairs. Patrick was waiting for me at my car.

“I thought I was meeting you at your place,” I told him.

“I decided to kidnap you.”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

“You’re consenting to it.”

“Am I?”

“Just get in the car, Morgan,” he said with a laugh.

His eyes were bright, and I actually swooned at the sight. How did he do this to me? How had he always done this to me?

“Fine. But under protest.”

“Liar,” he muttered as he hopped into the driver’s side.

He was right. I didn’t protest a single thing about this. Not a single thing.

We made it across town in record time, and Patrick jogged around the truck to help me out. I couldn’t believe that I was back here. I’d basically thought that last week was the end of this. Dreams dashed and all.

As I crossed the threshold into his house, everything felt totally different. Last time, I’d been excited to finally make my move. That I could finally make this happen.

Now, I was out of my element. I hadn’t seriously dated since college. And, even then, three guys in four years hadn’t been much to write home about. Actually, none of them had met my brothers. So, I literally hadn’t written home about them.

“What are you thinking for dinner?” he asked as he peeled his suit jacket off.

“I…have no idea. What can you make?”

He laughed. “Everything. Why don’t I just put something together? You don’t like mushrooms or olives, right?”

I startled and froze in the middle of the kitchen. “Yeah. How do you know that?”

He seemed to think for a minute. “I don’t know. I pay attention.”

My heart melted. I’d never realized that Patrick had paid that much attention to me. How had I thought that I could move on from him?

“You can change into my clothes again if you want,” he added with a grin.

“Are you trying to get me out of my clothes?” I teased.

“Not yet.”

I gulped. “Awfully confident, aren’t you?”

“Weren’t you throwing yourself at me the last time you were here? Something about get in bed right now?”

I smacked his arm as my face flamed red. “God, try to embarrass a girl, why don’t you? Is this how you treat all your dates?”

“Yeah, no,” he said, setting a pot on the stove and adding water and a hefty dose of salt. “I’ve never cooked for a date before.”

“Ever?” I gasped in disbelief.

He shot me another grin. “Ever.”

“Is this a date? I mean, did I just make an ass of myself?”

“Morgan, relax.”

He grabbed my arm and pulled me over to him. I moved into his arms and tried to do what he’d said. He pressed my back against his chest, skimming his hands over my hips. My breathing hitched at the movement. So intimate. Then, his lips brushed against my shoulder, and my whole body shuddered. I melted back into him.

“That’s better,” he said with a breathy laugh. “You were so tense.”

“Well, I have a tendency to overthink things.”

“You?” he gasped in mock horror.

“Oh, shut up.”

He laughed. “Stop overthinking. Yes, of course, this is a date.”

The rest of the tension left my body at that comment.

“But maybe you should change out of that dress.” His hands slipped over the form-fitting plum dress I’d put on this morning.

“What’s wrong with my dress?”

“It’s very distracting.”

“Oh, yeah?” I asked, spinning in place to face him.

“Yeah. I’m trying to cook for you here, and all I want to do is this.”

He grabbed me by the backs of my thighs, hoisting my legs up and around his waist. I gasped and slid my arms around his neck to steady myself. My body was pressed tightly against him, exposing ample thighs for his viewing pleasure. I stared into his baby blues and saw the desire mirroring mine. It was intoxicating.

Feeling the part of the seductress, I flicked my tongue out across my bottom lip. Then, I dragged my bottom lip into my mouth. His eyes followed every movement. His body was hard and strong beneath mine as his hands slipped up my thighs to my ass and held me firmly in place.

All I wanted in that moment was him. All of him.

This was our choice.

This was our desire.

This was everything.

Patrick eased me back onto the counter to free up his hands. I groaned as he grazed my breasts on his ascent. He pushed harder against me, as if his own body couldn’t hold back, even as his hands worked their way up to my face. He cupped my cheek with one hand and dragged the other to the back of my head before pulling me toward him.

All of this anticipation, all the need, and all the innumerable times I’d imagined this moment happening…it was nothing compared to reality. To the way our bodies twined together and our heat mingled. To my racing heartbeat and his steady confidence. To the desire that snaked through my core and enveloped us both.

His lips touched mine, tentative at first. Tender as he explored me. His tongue darted out and ran across my lips until I opened for him. We met in the middle—tasting, touching, learning. He nibbled gently on my bottom lip, and I was a goner. I moaned at the caress, and the dam broke. He tugged me tighter against him and kissed me, like it was the last thing he would ever do. And, when I succumbed, drowning in him, I knew then that the wait had been worth it.