Page 9 of Eye of the Hurricane (Weathering Doves Harbor #2)

Ares

“Can’t you just tell me where you’re taking me?”

“Can’t you just let someone else take the lead?” I counter. Katherine’s smile drops and she gives me the finger.

“This is weird for me,” she admits, playing with the hem of her dress.

Today’s dress is a yellow and orange floral sundress. The neckline is cut low enough that if I had just a little less restraint, I might crash the car sneaking a peek. Naturally, she’s got on a matching pair of heels.

I wonder how many pairs she has. More than that, I wonder where she keeps them all. I feel like I never see her in the same shoes twice.

It’s entirely unplanned but we almost match. The core of both of our outfits is yellow. Although hers is yellow and orange and mine is yellow and blue. Blue dress pants and a blue and yellow striped button up.

I don’t normally dress up so much going out but I always try to make a point of matching her energy.

“What’s weird for you?”

“All of it I guess. Going on dates, even if they are fake. Letting you take the lead on things. Even riding passenger in the car, I don’t think I’ve been passenger in a car and sober since I got my license.

” She hasn’t said these things out loud until now but on some level, I knew.

It’s always been somewhat obvious that giving up control isn’t something that comes natural to her.

“Do you want to drive on the way back?” I offer. Control means nothing to me so if it’s something she needs, it’s hers.

“You’d let me drive your car?” she asks, seeming genuinely surprised at the offer.

“If it would make you feel better,” I state simply, giving her a nod of assurance. Just then, I’m pulling into the parking lot for the South Carolina Aquarium. She looks to the sign, then to me.

“It would.”

I don’t hesitate to pull the keys from the ignition the moment we’re parked and place them in her palm. “All you, honey.”

I slip out of the car and make my way around the front to open her door. I hold out a hand for her and she uses it for leverage to step out of the car.

I consider taking her hand on our way in because it’s what feels natural and because it’s what I would do if we were on a real date. But I don’t because I don’t know where her line is and I don’t want to touch her without her permission.

I make a mental note that when we’re not in public, we need to have a conversation about the rules for this situation. How close to a real boyfriend should I be acting?

When we reach the ticket counter, she reaches for her purse and I shoot her a deadly glare .

“You’re kidding, right?” I ask, pulling my wallet out of my pocket.

“I don’t need you to pay for me,” she quips, pulling a small white wallet out of a white purse.

“I know, but I’d like to,” I tell her. She sighs, shoving the wallet back in her purse. “Thank you.”

“I should be thanking you, you’re paying for my ticket.”

“Kat, if a man takes you on a date and expects you to pay, get up and leave him there.” The thought of all of this being practice for her to someday be with someone else sits like a brick in my stomach. Still, I’m doing her a disservice if I let her think that’s acceptable behavior on a date.

“Noted.” We walk inside and the whole building is illuminated in shades of blues. The bright white water ripples reflect in various places.

“I’ve never been to an aquarium,” she admits. I figured that out by the way her eyes turned to big round baby blue orbs. They’re wide and glossed over as she takes in the full scenery.

“How have you been living in South Carolina and never been to an aquarium?” I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been to every aquarium in a five hour radius of Doves Harbor. Maybe that’s because I have a marine rescue employee as a best friend.

“As you know, I don’t allot myself much free time. Usually when I have some, I just rest or do whatever Luna wants to drag me into.”

“I feel like there’s so much you’ve never done.”

“First time for everything, right?” She gives me a nudge with her elbow and walks to the first exhibit. I follow like a puppy behind her.

Katherine stops at every single tank, even the smallest. Every one brings her to a standstill. She’s silent with big, focused eyes. That is, until she turns and faces me, standing much closer than I’m used to.

“It’s so beautiful here, thank you for bringing me,” she gushes.

“Anytime.” I give her a wink. If I ever stop hitting on Katherine Graeves, check my pulse.

“I have to be honest, these don’t really feel like dates.” The comment catches me off guard but I can’t quite disagree. I’m not sure why. I’ve brought flowers, complimented her, talked for hours, opened the doors, all of it.

“No?” I counter, hoping she’ll elaborate.

“It just feels like we’re hanging out and you’re being extra nice to me.

I’m having fun, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t know that this is getting us any closer to where we need to be for the wedding,” she explains.

I could get on my knees right here and start praying to every higher power that she means what I think she does.

Certainly, there’s no hiding the smirk creeping up on my face. I don’t let her off easy, either. I make her spell it out for me.

“What’s missing for you?” I ask.

“You never touch me,” she murmurs.

The smirk has grown into a full-on wicked grin. “Is that what you want, Kat? You want me to touch you?” I taunt, pushing her hair out of her face and inching closer to her. Her breath is heavy and she’s looking at me like someone who wants to be kissed.

“Yes,” she breathes out. I let my gaze linger for a moment on her perfect, full lips. Then, I slip a hand between us and take her hand in mine, interlocking our fingers .

The only thing better than fucking with Katherine is the look on her face for the thirty seconds it takes her to recover from that moment. She adjusts her fingers slightly in my hand to find her natural position.

“Can I tell you something silly?” she asks.

“You can tell me anything you’d like, I’ve told you this.”

“This is the first time I’ve held hands with someone.” I scrunch my brows and turn my head to face her.

“That can’t be true.”

“It is. No time for dating means no time for hand-holding, I guess,” she laughs. I can’t join her because I’m too busy trying to make sense of this new information in my head.

Katherine, the prettiest girl I’ve ever met—the prettiest girl most people have met—has never held hands with another person. Something possessive and ugly rears its head inside mine.

“You’re looking at me like I have three heads. You’re making me regret telling you.”

“It’s just hard to believe.”

“Well, believe it,” she retorts. She pulls me by my hand to the next exhibit.

I can see the next few months of my future looking a lot like this. Her grabbing my hand and dragging me anywhere she wants to go and me following close behind with a smile on my face.

We’re walking out of the gift shop and she’s hugging a four-foot, hot pink sea turtle in her arms. One that she insisted she buy for herself but ultimately, that I bought for her.

I walk around to the driver’s side and open the back door first for her to throw the turtle in. Then I grab the door to the driver’s seat for her. She shakes her head and pushes the keys out to me.

“You can drive.” She shrugs. I mentally note the win of her letting me take the reins.

“You sure?” I test.

“Positive,” she says, rounding out the other side of the car and getting in.

“This next part isn’t really part of the date, it’s just something I want to show you.”

“Okay.” She doesn’t ask where I’m taking her. She just says okay. It’s a simple act but it’s enough that I tuck it into my mind along with every other moment I don’t want to forget with her. Which, just so happens to be all of them.

I drive her about as far as Doves Harbor goes. It’s not a large town, only a couple of minutes until you’re in the next one over. I pull into the driveway of a light green house on stilts.

She doesn’t know where we are, but I do. We’re at the house my brother bought for him and Audra to live in. Audra doesn’t know it yet, either. I thought buying a house without showing it to her first was risky, but Roman seems sure she’ll love it.

I park the car and we get out. She walks around to my side of the car.

“Where are we?” she asks.

“Ro bought this house for him and Audra. She doesn’t know yet, he’s telling her tomorrow. I’m helping him.” Her eyes soften and her mouth pops open. For a second, I think she might start crying but she doesn’t.

“That’s so romantic!” she gushes.

“Yeah, it is. I had my reservations, but I think they’re kind of perfect for each other,” I admit.

“Long way from the fighting you were doing just over a month ago.”

“The fighting we were doing when you were in my bedroom asking me to fuck you?”

“Oh my god, I thought we agreed to never talk about that!” Kat squeals and covers her eyes. I pull her hands from her eyes, holding eye contact with her.

“Why is that night so embarrassing to you?”

“I don’t know. It just is.”

“You have nothing to be embarrassed about. Should I be embarrassed because I want to fuck you right now?” I ask in an attempt to drive my point home. Her already pink cheeks darken to a bright red.

“You want to fuck me right now?” A twisted part of me is ecstatic that was her takeaway.

“Yep. No shame about it either.” At this point, I half expect her to tell me I should be embarrassed. “Do you want to fuck me right now, Katherine?”

If she was red before, she’s now airing on the side of purple. She’s chewing her lip so hard I think she might break the skin. I should probably stop fucking with her, but it’s addicting. The way she blushes and just freezes is adorable.

“Yes,” she mumbles under her breath. Well fuck, I didn’t expect that . I was just trying to prove a point and fuck with her a little. I never expected a yes out of her. “But we can’t,” she adds .

“I know.” The plan. The fucking plan. Her and that. Goddamn. Plan.

“Are you going to tease me for that too?” she asks.

“I’m just trying to show you that there’s no reason to be shy about your sex life. You’re a grown woman, you shouldn’t feel shame for having urges.”

“You can blame the deeply religious southern parents for that one.”

“Don’t worry, honey. I’ll break that habit.” I give her a wink.

“An arcade?” Her voice tells me she’s not happy about the last stop of our date. Her face tells another story, though. Excited eyes scan the arcade and a smile tips at the corners of her mouth.

“Yeah, I get the vibe you don’t have a lot of fun.” She pulls a hand quickly to her chest and drops her mouth open in fake shock.

“I have so much fun! I make sure to schedule it in and everything.”

“Fun can’t be penciled in, Kat.”

“Sure it can, I’ve been doing it for years.”

“I’ll show you what real fun is like, don’t worry,” I assure her. She rolls her eyes with a shake of the head like I’m the one being ridiculous. I think she’s lived this way for so long that she has no idea what she’s missing.

She keeps everything wrapped so tight but I’d like to see her let loose. Just once, I want to see her without a plan or without a tight grip on the reins of life.

“Are you going to hold my hand here?” she asks so lowly, it’s almost a whisper. She’s blushing and I’m beginning to think I might be addicted to seeing her blush.

“Do you want me to?” She nods. “Then yes, I’m going to hold your hand.”

So I do, I grab her hand and interlock our fingers. Our hands fit together like puzzle pieces.

She drags me from game to game, picking which ones for us to play. She tells me again and again that she’s never played this game before and after a while it stops surprising me.

Between every game that we play, she quickly finds my hand to drag me to the next. At first, she was timid about it and I could see her waiting for me to take her hand. Now she runs right over to me and wraps her hand in mine.

After hours and hours of arcade games and what seems to be a gazillion tickets, she’s finally ready to leave. Not that I’m complaining about being there. I got to spend the night watching her jump up and down when she won and give me the most adorable pouty face when she lost.

“Can we go home? My feet are killing me.”

“You have to cash in all the tickets first, honey.” She sticks her lip out like I’ve just given her the worst news in the world. “Cash in the tickets and I’ll carry you to the car,” I assure her.

“Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously,” I agree. There is no wiping the smile off of her face.

We spend longer than I thought any adult could at the arcade counter while she picks what to use her tickets for. Of course, she goes with the stuffed duck and a shit ton of candy.

She walks over to me with her prizes in hand, showing them off like a proud mother.

“You ready?” I ask

“Yep. Take me home.”

Because I’m a man of my word, I scoop her up off the ground, prizes and all. She gives a squeal when her feet leave the ground.