The Hammond family dissolves into more chuckles, the likes of which I’ve never seen at a family dinner table.
“You guys suck,” Rowan says with a grin. “Don’t be shocked if those cannoli’s come home with me.”
“Awww, cruel, man!” Silas says with a laugh.
“Well, we’ll just have to see,” Rowan says with a dramatic sigh, all while his hand is still on my knee I’m sitting as straight as possible, staring straight ahead and trying to will myself not to blush as I feel his fingertips slowly tease over my bare knee. And I’m just about to crack — I’m just about to shiver, or snap, or give the whole thing away somehow, when he suddenly takes his hand back.
He slides his chair out from the table and stands. “Bathroom, ‘scuse me.”
“I love that Mom even laughed,” Sierra says with a smirk as Rowan leaves the room.
“I did not!”
“Mom, you totally did.”
Irene rolls her eyes. “I just- Oh! Shoot! I forgot the sauce for the cauliflower!”
“Oh, I can get it, Mrs. Hammond.” I smile as I stand quickly before she can.
She smiles. “Oh, aren’t you a dear! It’s just on the back burner on the stove.”
I smile as I make my way through the dining room door and around the corner to the kitchen. I walk through that, down the hall, and I’m standing with my brow furrowed and my hands planted on my hips when the bathroom door swings open.
“Jesus,” Rowan jumps a step back.
“Do you think this is funny?”
He grins. “What, pissing?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
“Oh, that? Yeah, definitely.”
I roll my eyes. “Well, stop it.”
“But it’s so much fun.”
“What on earth is so fun about making me uncomfortable and making me feel like you’re about to ruin my life?”
“Besides these little one-on-ones I get for my efforts?”
I glare at him.
“You really want to know.” He leans against the doorframe.
“Yes.”
“Because I’ve never seen a cuter blush, that’s why.”
My face reddens.
Of course.
Rowan grins. “Yeah, like that.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say quickly.
“Yes you do.”
“You just enjoy being an asshole to me.”
“Nah, trust me — it’s all about that blush.”
Why.
Why am I still standing here?
If I had any sense at all, I’d just walk away from this. I’d go back, get the cauliflower sauce, sit back at the table, finish dinner, smile at my parents and then leave.
If I had one single bit of sense, I wouldn’t still be lingering here in the back hallway with this man waiting for my father to stumble onto this scene.
“You like making me blush? That’s it? Why?”
Rowan shrugs, his arms crossing over his chest. “Because it tells me I’m doing something to shake up that perfect little construct you’ve got built up inside your little world. And angel?” He leans close and my breath catches in my throat. “Trust me when I say you need to get shaken up.”
“You-” I swallow quickly. “You’re too close.”
“Am I?”
“Yes,” I whisper.
“Too close like last night?”
My eyes drag up to his. “That was a mistake.”
“Sure about that?”
I don’t answer.
“I think kissing is probably something we should cover in the lessons.”
The lessons.
The thought makes my cheeks burn even hotter.
Rowan growls as his eyes move over my face. “There it is,” he murmurs.
“I’m just hot, that’s all,” I mumble.
“I like making you hot.”
“You’re no- oh!”
His hand lands on my waist, and I gasp.
I also don’t make any sort of move.
“How about now.”
I shake my head. “No.”
The hand slides over my hip to the small of my back, and my heart hammers in my chest.
“Now?”
“Stop it,” I whisper without meaning it one bit.
“Stop what.”
“You can’t-” I shiver under his touch. “You can’t do that.”
“Do what,” he murmurs into my ear.
I gasp. Literally, I gasp out loud.
“I want you to stop it,” I say lamely.
“You know lying is a sin, angel.”
“So is lust.”
“You saying you’re feeling lust right now?”
Bite my lip. “No, I- no.”
My head is spinning, and I’m letting him pull me closer. My hands move to his chest, and I shiver as my wide eyes drag up to his.