Squirming with embarrassment and anxiety at what she was about to say, Lissa couldn’t meet his eyes. “I mean about this. What we’re about to—” She broke off, flustered.
Jesse laughed softly. “Baby, I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life.”
Now she was really embarrassed. But she didn’t want this to be something they did in the heat of the moment. Something that was tied to the crazy emotions he had to be feeling. While she was all for getting swept up in passion, she didn’t want him to regret it. She didn’t think she could handle that.
“I just need to be sure you’re in the right frame of mind. That this isn’t because you’ve had such an intense night. That you won’t…regret it in the morning.”
Now he laughed in earnest, and she felt her cheeks flame. Grabbing her hands when she started to pull away, Jesse leaned his forehead against hers, a gesture she was quickly becoming accustomed to, and ran his hands gently up and down her arms. “I think you’ve got our roles a little reversed. Shouldn’t I be the one making sure this is what you want?”
She did have to giggle at that. “Maybe. But still. I need to know.”
“Lissa, if it makes you feel any better, this is something I’ve wanted to do with you for as long as I knew how to do it.”
Her mouth dropped in shock, but he wasn’t finished.
“I just haven’t trusted myself with you until now. But since we’re discussing it, I should probably clarify that you’re on board as well.” She almost wanted to smack the grin off his face. “I can offer you myself, but that’s all I’ve got. I promise that for as long as you want me, I’m yours, and only yours.”
Melting, Lissa pulled his mouth back to hers and murmured, “Done,” before kissing him with all the pent-up love and need that she’d buried for so many years.
Their kisses slowly morphed from hard and greedy to something sweeter, softer. An exploration of each other that didn’t require rushing. They had all the time in the world and were taking it to get acquainted with each other in a new and delicious way.
Lissa had no notion of time and was barely aware of Jesse picking her up from the couch and carrying her back to her bedroom until he set her gently down beside her bed. Stepping back, he gave her a look of such fierce desire that she knew she couldn’t wait another moment. Reaching for his hand, she pulled him to her, and as they fell in a tangle of limbs upon her bed, she knew she had never been so carefully treasured and adored.
CHAPTER TWELVE
How was it already morning? Lissa felt as if the night had gone on forever in one long, glorious escape, but now she felt as if she’d only just closed her eyes. Groaning at the alarm ringing on her phone, she reached for it but was promptly pulled even tighter back against Jesse’s chest.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he murmured, his voice thick from sleep.
She settled into arms, luxuriating in the feel of his hard muscles pressed against her bare back. It was surreal, and she didn’t want to miss a second of it. Unfortunately, her alarm was still ringing in what was becoming an obnoxiously loud trill up and down a scale.
Laughing when she tried again, to sit up, only to have his arms clench even tighter around her waist, she resorted to logic. “I do have to turn this off, you know. Otherwise it will keep going all day.”
“Fine,” he huffed. But he didn’t let her go. Instead, he reached toward her nightstand and grabbed the phone with one smooth motion, swiping his finger across the screen to silence the alarm before tossing it onto the carpeted floor. “But you aren’t getting up.”
Lissa turned in his arms so that she could see his face and nipped gently at the dark scruff on his chin that had become visible overnight. “Much as I’d like to stay right here, I have things to do at work.”
“They can wait. I’m the boss, and I’m giving you the day off.” He opened his eyes and grinned at her. “And I wouldn’t recommend arguing with the boss.”
She scoffed. “I’m the one that runs that place, and you know it.”
“Yeah, yeah. Then I guess I’ll just have to use my powers of persuasion to keep you here. Because I don’t intend to let you out of this bed for quite some time.”
And he didn’t. When at last she could think straight again, and Jesse appeared to be passed out once more, she managed to grab her phone on the way to the shower. Catching sight in the mirror of the ridiculous grin plastered across her face, she shook her head. Only a thorough dousing of conditioner would give her a chance at untangling her crazy mass of curls.
Feeling a bit more put together after showering and dressing, Lissa was surprised to find that Jesse was no longer in bed, but the smell of bacon quickly drew her out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, where she found him standing over the stove in only his jeans, low-slung over his hips.
“Now there is a sight I could get used to,” she teased. He turned and flashed her that crooked smile and her heart did a little somersault. Relieved to discover there was no awkwardness between them this morning, she hopped up onto the counter and did nothing to hid her perusal of his half-naked body.
Arching a brow at her fully put together look, he said, “And just where do you think you’re going?”
“I told you, to work. The grand opening of the boutique is only a month away. I don’t have time for lying around aimlessly.”
“Oh, I promise I wouldn’t let your time go unaccounted for. I have plenty of ways to put it to good use.”
How much she’d love to stick around for that. “No can do. I have some interviews set up this afternoon and I absolutely have to get some orders finalized.”
Jesse placed the last of the bacon strips on some paper towels and flicked off the stovetop, turning to cage her between his arms on the counter. He took her bottom lip between hers and bit it gently.
“Fine. But on one condition. Meet me for dinner tonight.”
“I think I can handle that. Where were you thinking?”
“How about Angus’s?”
Lissa’s mouth fell open slightly. That was the nice steakhouse on the square. Not that it was super fancy. That’s not what surprised her.
He must have seen the look on her face and caught it’s meaning because he grinned again. “If this thing is official, then we might as well go public with it.”
And that they would. Enough people would be there on a Saturday night that most of Willow Valley would know about them by Monday morning. Angus’s was most definitely the kind of place that you took a date. While they’d been seen in public together plenty, it would be clear to everyone who saw them that they weren’t there on a Saturday night to discuss work. Especially if Jesse continued to look at her like he wanted to devour her for dinner.
“Okay,” she said, plucking a piece of bacon from the plate and taking a bite, “it’s a date.”
***
“You did what?” Jesse didn’t think that anything could have distracted him from the combination of nerves and excitement of taking Lissa out on their first official date as a real couple, but she’d managed to find the one thing.
“I hired Abigail—well, Abby, she likes to be called.” Lissa eyed him warily over the top of her menu.
“So now you’re on such familiar terms with my sister that you know what she prefers to be called?” It was an irrational statement, and he knew it, but this was not how he had expected dinner conversation to go.
Lissa slammed her menu down and gave him a death glare, causing several people to glance their way curiously. Jesse met their eyes full on in turn, and they all dropped their gazes quickly, but he wasn’t fooled. They were all trying to figure out what was going on. If Lissa and Jesse were the new couple in town, they sure were getting off to a bad start.
Gritting his teeth and making a conscious effort to lower his voice. “I’m sorry. You know I don’t mean that.”
“Or that it doesn’t even make sense,” she added crisply, picking up her menu but still staring daggers at him ov
er the top.
“I know, I get it. But I can’t believe you did this! After what I told you last night? The woman despises me. God knows why.”
“And me. Now.” She bit her lip then lowered her menu, much more delicately this time. “Look, Jesse, the woman is new to town, and she needs a job. She has nowhere to stay, no money, no family—you know what I mean. Her mother just died! Anyway, there are hardly any job openings in town. It seemed like she needed someone to cut her a break.”
“And it had to be you.” But he honestly didn’t expect anything less of her. She had a kind heart and a soft spot for people in need. It was one of the many things he loved about her. So to fault her for it because it made him uncomfortable didn’t feel right. Still, it did make him extremely uncomfortable.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down further. “I get it. That’s just how you are.” She cut a sharp look at him, and he held up his hands, smiling. “I mean that in a good way. I just don’t know how I’m supposed to work with her every day when she hates me. That dinner last night was the most uncomfortable couple hours of my life. I’m not going to walk around my own store on pins and needles around her.”
“I don’t think you’ll have to. She talked to me a little. You know I have a way of getting people to open up.”
Jesse laughed out loud at this and Lissa grinned wryly in response. That was an understatement. Her natural…curiosity…about other people came hand in hand with a way of getting even complete strangers to reveal their deepest secrets.
“And what makes you so sure that this isn’t going to be a complete disaster?”
Lissa reached for his hands across the table and gripped them firmly. Jesse barely noticed the knowing glances of some of the other restaurant patrons. “She wants to get to know you. She told me as much.”
“Well she sure has a funny way of showing it,” he muttered, but his frustration melted under the soft strokes of Lissa’s fingers across the back of his hand.
“I think she’s scared. She didn’t know how you or your father were going to react. She seems like the type that puts up a tough front to avoid showing how she really feels, to protect herself. You know the type.” She arched an eyebrow at him.
“What, you mean me?” He laughed. “I was trying to protect you, darlin’.”
“If you say so.” But there was humor in her voice. “As long as you don’t do it again.”
He’d been half-embarrassed this morning remembering the way he’d spilled his guts all over Lissa’s living room floor last night. But the way she was looking at him now made him know he’d made the right choice. Last night had been one of the best of his life, and now here they were on a date at a very cozy restaurant. Time to change the subject from his sister.
“All right, I’ll trust you on this. But if things go horribly wrong, don’t expect this to be the last you’ll hear of it.”
She leaned back and picked up her menu once more. “I wouldn’t imagine that it would be.” Her eyes twinkled when she said it and he marveled all over again that this woman was his.
“What can I get you to drink, Mr. Kincade?” the pretty young waitress, who could only be about eighteen, said with a flirtatious smile, startling him. Jesse smiled back at her, then let out a small grunt of pain when he felt a swift kick to his shin. His head snapped back to Lissa, who was smiling demurely at him, but had a hint of steel in her eyes.
He shrugged one shoulder, not knowing what he’d done wrong now, then directed his answer to the waitress. “A bottle of your best champagne, please.” As soon as she was gone, he turned on Lissa. “What the hell was that for?”
“Just a little reminder that you’re here with your girlfriend, darling.”
“I am well aware of that. You aren’t honestly jealous of the waitress, are you?”
Her cheeks turned pink, and he realized that yes, in fact, she was. If not for the ache in his leg, he’d think it was sweet. Cute, even.
“How about next time you keep your reminders to the verbal sort?”
She bit her lip again, and his eyes focused on her mouth.
She sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m just not used to this. What I am used to is you flirting with anyone who flashes you a pretty smile. And I don’t want to seem jealous.” She made a mock-horrified face, and his laughter seemed to ease her discomfort. “It’s just that women are always throwing themselves at you. I’m used to that part, believe me. But now that we’re, well, together, apparently it’s a bit harder to stomach.”
Just then the waitress reappeared with the champagne and two glasses and promptly filled them up. Jesse noticed her give Lissa a narrowed look of appraisal, sizing her up. Huh, isn’t that interesting? He supposed he’d just become accustomed to it and didn’t realize that women tried to get his attention. Well, he’d make sure that after tonight, everyone knew he only had eyes for Lissa Winters.
He and Lissa took their glasses, but before she could take a sip, Jesse grabbed her free hand with his and lifted it to his lips. Holding her gaze with his, he slowly kissed her knuckles, letting his mouth linger for a moment, and he felt a small shiver run up her arm.
Then he lifted his glass. “To Lissa.” She raised her glass to her lips and took a sip, just before he finished with, “Who knew we would get so lucky?”
She nearly choked on the sip of champagne and looked at him in horror.
“What?” he said innocently, though he knew full well what he had just implied to anyone who was bothering to pay them any attention. Which was probably the whole restaurant. “Just want everyone to know what an amazing woman I have.”
She covered her eyes, apparently mortified, but he could see that she was also fighting off a grin.
“Jesse Kincade, you are terrible,” she hissed.
“And you love me anyway.”
“Yes,” she sighed, lowering her hands and giving him a long-suffering look that quickly dissolved into giggles. “Yes, I suppose I do, you big idiot.”
And she leaned across the table and gave him a kiss that left no doubt in anyone’s mind just what Jesse and Lissa were to one another now.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“I just have to tell you, it’s been wonderful while it’s lasted,” Lissa said with a long-suffering sigh.
Jesse looked over at her from the driver’s seat as he put his truck into park in front of Lissa’s parents’ house. “What are you talking about now, woman?” he laughed.
She scooted over closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, resting her head on his chest and feeling some of his calmness radiate into her for a moment.
“Just that I’m fairly certain after tonight that you may run away screaming.” She smiled at the feel of his rumbling laugh then lifted her head to look at him. “Seriously, though, how can you be so calm? You are about to be thrown into the lion’s den.”
He tipped his head down and kissed the end of her nose. “I’ve been dealing with you for years. It takes a lot more than some busybody Winters women to run me off.”
“Hey!” She pulled her arm back to smack him on the shoulder for that one, but he caught her wrist and pinned it behind her back before capturing her mouth with his.
Lissa forgot to be mad and lost herself to the way Jesse’s body felt against hers as he explored her mouth. She didn’t think she would ever get used to how he could make her feel. After dinner on Saturday, he’d come back to her place again and they had stayed up until the early hours of the morning learning every inch of each other.
Just as she totally lost track of where she was and what she was supposed to be doing, a pounding knock on the truck window behind Jesse had her jumping out of his arms and back to her seat.
“Lanie!” She ran her hands through her hair to try and smooth it out.
Lanie smirked through the window, then yanked Jesse’s door open, sticking her tongue out at her sister in a way Lissa thought was very unbecoming. Then again, she may have made the same face back at her.
“He absolutely did not have,” Lissa declared, indignant. But one glance down showed her that they had gotten a bit more carried away than she realized. Jesse paled slightly as he met her eyes. So he was nervous after all. If not at the thought of her mom and sisters, at least at the idea of her dad catching them making out in the car like teenagers.
“It’s not like he hasn’t already heard about your PDA at Angus’s,” Lanie continued, and Jesse clamped his mouth into a firm line as he yanked the keys from the ignition.
Lissa put her hand on his arm. “It’s okay. You’ve known the man your whole life. He’s a nice guy and you know it.” Then again, he had never sat down to dinner with a man she was sleeping with. She grimaced, starting to see Jesse’s point.
Jesse visibly pulled himself together, and his easygoing grin was in place once more. “I got this, babe.”
“Babe?” Lissa and Lanie echoed in unison, both wrinkling their noses.
Lissa gave him a withering look as she pushed her own door open. “Do me a favor, okay? Just lay off the ‘babe’ crap and we’ll be good.” But all joking aside, she made her way around the front of the truck and took Jesse’s hand, squeezing it reassuringly. She would be a nervous wreck in his place, so she did feel a bit of sympathy for him. And the fact that she was more than a little nervous about him being scared off by her family was still in the back of her mind.
She loved her crazy family. More than anything. But they were a lot to take in. Especially for someone like Jesse who came from a family that had almost certainly not had the love and laughter always given in equal measures like hers did.
She raised up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek as they stopped in front of the front door, only to have it whooshed open immediately by Mr. Winters himself.
“Dad!”
“Come here, girl,” her dad said, wrapping her in a big bear hug, as he always did when he saw her. Releasing her, he turned to Jesse, and Lissa held her breath. This was the first time she’d brought a boyfriend to a family dinner. Though she hadn’t told Jesse that, she was sure he realized the significance of it.
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