“I came for you.” My voice squeaked out high and thready.
He laughed, deep and rumbling. “I know. I was right there with you, but I still want you to tell me you’re here for me.”
I pushed him back from me with a scowl and jumped off the counter. The way my chest pressed against his much harder one made my already excited nipples hurt with the need for attention.
“Fine. I’m here in Denver for you. I met Phil a few years back and he had me spilling my guts to him while he tattooed me. He asked where I grew up and I told him Loveless, Texas. He had to have known you and I had a lot of history. He put the wheels in motion before he passed away but the truth is I came here for you.”
He opened his mouth to say something else but the puppy, who had remained surprisingly quiet during all our commotion, came hurtling out of my bedroom with the remains of a tattered and slobbered-on high heel in his mouth. I sighed as he brought his prize over and dropped it at Rowdy’s booted feet with a proud “woof.”
I grumbled, “Looks like he wants to play.”
Rowdy chuckled and bent down to scratch the dog behind the ears. “So do I.”
I couldn’t stop my gaze from rolling over the way his pants were straining in the front. I bit my lower lip and saw his gaze narrow in on the motion.
Now that there was some space between us, I got my wits back and told him, “Look, I had no idea you asked Poppy to marry you. I have all these memories of how sweet you always were, how in sync we always were, and how you always made me happy. I decided to chase those old feelings down. I was always missing something no matter where I was at and I kind of felt like that something was you. I didn’t think it all the way through . . . I never do.”
I shifted uneasily on my bare feet as he continued to watch me in silence. “I want you, Rowdy. You’re gorgeous and extremely talented, but I’m not going to share a guy with my sister. Not any guy, not ever.” I wondered if he even knew she had married someone else just a few short years after rejecting him.
He lifted one of his golden eyebrows at me and rose back up to his full and impressive height.
“Poppy isn’t here.”
“It doesn’t feel that way. I don’t know that I’m going to be able to get my head around the fact you asked her to marry you, Rowdy.” I looked at the little dog that had wiggled between us and plopped his fuzzy bottom on my feet. “I always thought it was just puppy love, not something real.”
He rubbed one of his sideburns with his index finger and a boyish grin flirted with his mouth. He was a dangerous mix of the boy I remembered and the complicated man I was starting to get to know on a much different level.
He put his finger under my chin and lifted my face back up so that we were looking at each other.
“I haven’t done something real, Salem. I loved Poppy for a lot of reasons and I don’t know looking back on it now that any of them would have lasted or would make any kind of sense now. What I do know is that when I saw you that day you got hired at the shop, it was like walking face-first into a wall, and not only did my dick get hard just by looking at you but something in my chest felt like it broke loose. I don’t know if any of that is good or bad yet, but what I do know is that it feels pretty damn real. More real than anything I ever felt for your sister. I know it all feels less like something that’s going to be easy and a good time and more like something I have to work my way through. I also know feeling all of that scares the living shit out of me.”
Well, it wasn’t exactly a sweeping declaration of love and they weren’t words that put all my apprehensions to rest, but there was no denying the magnetic, physical response that we most definitely brought out in each other. I just needed a minute to get my head and my heart on the same page and I told him as much.
“I need to figure out how I feel about the fact you were willing to spend the rest of your life with my sister, Rowdy. Nothing has ever mattered enough for me to want to put it all together before. Normally I get bored and move on when things get difficult or complicated. Including my feelings. It’s easy to run away and much harder to stay.”
His eyes darkened to a fathomless turquoise and he took a step back from me. “Already been in your rearview once, Salem. I have no intention of ending up there again.”
I sighed and bent to pick up the dog when he whined up at me. I rubbed my face in his soft fur and looked at Rowdy over the top of Jimbo’s head.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
He snorted and turned so that he was walking toward the door.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” He nodded to where he had left the drawings on my counter. “Take a look at those and let me know what you think.”