“I’m not ready to say goodbye yet. Are you hungry?”
3
Dylan
Iwas drawn to Juliette from the moment I saw her. She was gorgeous with her silky mane of brunette curls, honey brown eyes, and curves that my hands itched to touch. But it wasn’t just that. It was how she bravely tried to hide her nervousness when we were all talking but then totally let go while she played pool with her friend. How, even though she sucked at the game, she tried hard and laughed at herself. She wasn’t sexy in the way you’d fantasize a woman leaning over a pool table could be. No, she was fucking adorable. And damn, the way she got so excited over the littlest win. Her enthusiasm was contagious.
It felt damn good to have all that excitement aimed my way. Her eyes lit up, her beautiful smile spreading across her face.
“Yes!” she nearly shouted.
“Would you like to go to dinner? There’s an Italian restaurant a couple of blocks away. It’s an easy walk, if that’s alright with you?”
“That sounds great. I just need a minute.” She headed over to her friends, whispering furtively to them. Nicky beamed at Juliette, but Jenna shook her head and frowned in my direction. She didn’t look okay with this in the slightest, and I prayed she wouldn’t talk Juliette out of it.
“Everything okay?” I asked when she came back.
“Yeah, I’m good. And she will be, too.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to reassure her that our friends knew each other so we weren’t total strangers, but I stayed silent. Juliette didn’t feel at all like a stranger to me, and it had nothing to do with Cole messing around with her friend.
She flashed that beautiful smile again, and my heart skipped a beat.
We walked out into the warm night together and started down the block toward the restaurant. “I know this was your first time at Nolan’s,” I said. “So, where do you usually go out?”
Juliette’s expression turned thoughtful. “Well…” She paused and slipped her hand into mine like we’d been holding hands forever, and damn, it felt so right. “We spend most of our time at one another’s houses or going out to dinner. We don’t go to bars often. What about you?”
“We go to Nolan’s a lot. It’s close to the firehouse and fairly central for all of us. I’m?—”
Juliette gasped and lurched forward. My free hand shot out to catch her, and I pulled her back.
“Are you okay?” I shifted into paramedic mode as I looked her over for injuries. She seemed alright.
I was suddenly all too aware of the intimate position I’d pulled her into—one hand holding hers, the other holding the side of her face, my fingertips along her jaw, my thumb grazingher soft lips, touching her in all the places I’d spent the last few hours wanting to kiss.
Her lips opened on a soft exhale as though she was having the same thoughts. “I’m okay, just tripped over a crack.”
I glanced down at the sidewalk, trying to find the offending crack, but she stepped away, tugging at my hand.
“I’m fine. Let’s keep going,” she insisted.
We continued walking, our hands gripped tightly, energy crackling between us, something intense that had nothing to do with her almost falling, and everything to do with the intimate way I’d held her moments ago. I let my thumb brush over her knuckles, and she glanced at me shyly, her eyes glimmering under the streetlights. When her thigh brushed against mine, my dick throbbed in my pants. Luckily, she didn’t seem to notice, and I swallowed hard, fighting to get myself under control.
After another block of comfortably charged silence, we reached the restaurant. I released her to open the door. “This is it.” I settled my hand gently at the small of her back as we walked in. She glanced back at me with a smile, but as she stepped inside, she tensed, a slight shift of her weight pulling her away from my touch.
The change was subtle, but I felt it crash over her—and between us—like a ton of bricks.
“Juliette? Are you okay?”
“I’m good.” But the smile she gave me didn’t match the one just seconds earlier. This one was fake. And she looked nervous again, like when we’d first met.
I had the urge to close the distance she’d put between us, to wrap my arms around her and ward off the vulnerability that shrouded her. But her body language screamed that she didn’t want that, so I did the exact opposite and took a small step away, giving her the space she suddenly seemed to need.
“Is this restaurant okay?”
“Yeah. It’s great,” she said quickly. Too quickly.
“We can go somewhere else. It’s no problem,” I assured her.