Smith(28)

“He’s why you have the baseball bat. Makes sense.” With that, Smith resumes stroking my back, inching his hand up to the middle of my spine. “When’s the last time you’ve gone skinny dipping?”

I blink at the rapid conversation change. “What?”

He gives me a wide-toothed grin that knocks me back in my seat. Smith’s smile at full wattage is devastating. Oh God, this man could really do me in. My brain is screaming danger, danger! “You’ve never been, have you.”

“Swimming naked is not a requirement of graduating into adulthood,” I say defensively, trying to pretend I’m not fully absorbed in him. Smelling his scent, listening to the rough timbre of his voice, feeling his fingers swirl circles on my skin, now inching closer to my waistband. “Not everyone is as pervy as you.”

His hand stills again, and he seems to pull back into himself.

Aunt Sylvia chooses that moment to come over. “Now you tell those two hooligan heathen brothers of yours to get themselves in here soon. I don’t even have to tell you what I’m gonna do if they don’t.”

Smith gives her a tight smile. He moves his hand to the table surface, and I suddenly feel bereft. What did I do? What did I say wrong? Somehow I fumbled things; all the talking we’d done seems to be over now. “I’ll be sure to tell them.” He goes to dig in his wallet, but Aunt Sylvia shoots him a glare so hard, he finally lifts his hands in the air. “Fine, but one day you have to let me pay you. This isn’t how you make money in a business.”

“Trust me, I’m doing just fine.” She moves away.

When she’s gone, he grabs a twenty out of his wallet anyway and leaves it on the table. I guess that’s our cue to go.

I feel deflated when we rise from the table. I want to say something, but I don’t know what. We step outside into the mild night air, and before he mounts on the bike, I touch his shoulder. He shifts his head so I see his profile.

“Hey. I…don’t know what happened back there.”

His walls are up; I can’t read his face at all. “Nothing. Totally fine.”

“Right. That’s why you just suddenly pulled away.” Frustration wells in me. My ex used to play these games—tell me nothing was wrong, nothing was wrong, then explode at me when I didn’t react the way he wanted me to, didn’t comfort him about whatever phantom injury I committed against him.

I can’t do that again. Can’t spend my days walking on eggshells, afraid I’m going to set someone off.

My chest tightens, and I turn from him, fighting back the emotion welling in me. “You know what? I’m going to get another ride home. Thanks for the pie.” I grab my phone and start walking in the direction we came from. I can find an Uber ride to take me, I’m sure.

“Aubrey.” His hand wraps around my upper arm.

I lift my chin and glare at him. “I’m not stupid. Don’t tell me nothing is wrong, because I know it is. And I’m not going through that anymore, so if that’s the bullshit you want to pull with me, I can’t do this.”

“This?” Smith steps forward. There’s a dark menace in his eyes, but I’m too heated myself to care if I’m pissing him off. “What is this?”

“How the hell should I know?” I swallow and try to ignore the feeling of his strong fingers on my bare skin. “Obviously ‘this’ is nothing.”

“It’s not nothing, and you know it.” He leans down until our mouths are an inch apart. “I spent all week telling myself to stay away from you. That we’re better off this way. You not getting dragged down by someone like me. I can’t let you.”

“You’re not dragging me down, Smith. I don’t know why you’d think that, either.”

“I don’t know. Maybe because I’m such a perv,” he says, a trace of bitterness in his voice.

It suddenly hits me that I’ve insulted him. “It was a joke,” I say. “I thought you’d laugh.”

“But that’s the problem. It’s not a joke,” Smith says, and there’s real emotion in his voice now. “I like things dirty. Rough.”

Something about that admission makes me throb, awakens all my nerve endings. “How dirty? How rough?”

He sees my reaction, and his nostrils flare.

Smith brushes his mouth on mine, a delicate touch that belies his next words. “I don’t think you could handle how rough I want it with you.”

“Is that…is that related to why you left while I was sleeping?” I have to know. To know it wasn’t that I did something wrong. That maybe he’s struggling with this demon inside him.