She'd been so close to him and now she was so far away. "I'm fine with it," he said, trying to offer a reassuring smile. "Maybe we just don't have dinner with your parents again for a while."
She looked away, her brows furrowed. "I'm really close with my family, Dustin."
"Of course you are, Emma. But this is our sixth date. It's way, way too soon for all of this...marriage talk."
She looked hard at him then. "But not too soon for making out?"
Ah, so she had been there with him after all. He grinned. "Definitely not too soon for that. In fact, the night is young if you want to do a little more of it."
She huffed and her eyes welled up. "I might've known that you'd be just like every other guy."
This worked like a bucket of ice water and suddenly winter was back in full force. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked quietly.
"You'll try everything you can to get me into bed, but when I ask for commitment, you want nothing to do with me. Well I won't let you use me, Dustin. If you love me then you'll wait."
Dustin's jaw muscles flexed. The insult was fairly heavy, but Emma was young and inexperienced. So he offered her his patience. "Look me in the eye, Emma," he said. And she did. "This is our sixth date. It is too soon to talk about marriage." She started to look away, but he gently touched a finger to her cheek and kept her attention. "You explained to me your rules for dating when we first went out. And I promised you I would support you. You create the boundaries and I won't push them. Kissing you just now was probably the single greatest moment of my life, but if that's something you don't want me to do anymore, then just say the word. Don't go accusing me of trying to get away with something. Because sweetheart, you kissed me right back."
She stared up at him, angry at first. But slowly the anger faded and she offered him an apologetic smile. "Okay," she whispered. "I just...I need to know that marriage is the end goal. Making out with you was amazing, but if I can't eventually have sex with you, then I don't really want to tempt myself with more of your kisses."
Dustin choked at her blunt mention of sex. She wanted to have sex with him. He wished she'd never said it because now the idea was sewn into his mind forever. He laughed a little and then pulled himself together. There were larger issues at hand. "Emma, you want me to promise you that I'll marry you eventually and I...I just can't make that promise."
"No, I just need to know that's what you want. What we're working toward. Maybe it will work out and maybe it won't, but I need to know that I have a possible future with you."
He drew in another deep breath. He'd try to explain one more time. "I don't know how else to say it, Emma. It took me two years to get up the courage to ask you out. And the stress of doing that probably knocked ten years off my lifespan. I can not talk about marriage. I can't."
"Then why are we dating?"
He leaned forward and dug his palms into his eyes. Then he stood. "I think I'd better just call it a night."
Emma jumped up and grabbed his arm. "No! I want to know why you want to go out with me? Why ask me in the first place? You know you've no chance of going to bed with me. You don't want to talk about marriage. So why?"
Dustin couldn't comprehend her mentality in the least. Why ask why at all? Why not just live moment-to-moment and see where things go? "I don't know, Emma. I'm in love with you. I'm happy when I'm near you. I just want to spend time with you and see what happens. Can't that be enough for you? On this, our sixth date?"
He watched as emotions he didn't understand played out over her face. Finally a resigned smile settled in. "Okay. You're right. It's enough. I'll back off."
He smiled at her, relieved. He stepped forward and leaned down to kiss her goodbye. As he turned to leave she stopped him one more time. "Just...," she hesitated. "Just don't break my heart. Okay?"
He had no answer for that. So he turned and walked away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Sunday morning Travis awoke early, excited for his day. Arden's parents had turned out to be fairly decent people and he was looking forward to spending the afternoon with her family. Arden had spent their whole date the night before complaining about her father being high-handed and old-fashioned and who knew what else. Travis had quit listening after a while and spent the time trying to look down her shirt.
Their date hadn't ended perfectly, but Travis wasn't worried. They'd had dinner and gone to a movie. Then Arden suggested they go back to her house. He reminded her that he wouldn't be doing that anymore. He suggested they go to his house. She told him she wasn't going to do it in the bed his ex-wife sleeps in. So he'd suggested parking somewhere and doing it in the backseat. Which had resulted in a look so chilling he wondered if he'd ever be warm again. Apparently Princess Arden wasn't a backseat kind of girl.