Page 48 of Fierce-Matt

She shook her head. Maybe she was the one in the wrong dimension. “Matt. You can earn my trust and we can still have fun without you overstepping. There was part of your personality I liked back then, when it was in moderation.”

“That’s it?” he asked. “You want to go and have fun on a date?”

“It’d be nice,” she said, shrugging. “Dinner is great, but life is short. I’ve got a lot going on and sometimes I want to let go of it and just laugh.”

“I’m not even funny to you anymore?” he asked. His jaw was open, his eyes wide. He was so appalled by that possibility.

She burst out laughing. “You should see your face.”

“There, you’re laughing,” he said, pointing at her. “I’m just dumbfounded by this. I’m trying to not scare you or push you away.”

“I don’t want you to not be yourself.”

“Being myself got me into this mess with you decades ago.”

“We were kids. I’ve accepted your explanations and moved on. I thought we were starting over.”

Now she was confused.

“Shit,” he said. “You said that. So if I want to go to Carowinds for a date, what would you say?”

“Hell yes,” she said. “I love amusement parks.”

“Give me another chance. I hate to say I’d like to start over again, but really, all I do is mess up around you.”

Her head went back and forth. “It’s not just that.”

“The friends category,” he said. He put his beer down and came around the island. “I’ve been going slow there too. I hugged you the other day and you stiffened.”

“Becauseyoudid,” she argued.

“When I kissed you, you didn’t really kiss me back a few days ago.”

“We were in a parking lot.”

Was he that clueless? She thought he was smoother than this.

“We aren’t now,” he said.

He was stalking her.

Her heart was racing. Her face was heating.

Her fingers were slipping on the glass as the sweat spread over her palms.

Thiswas what she wanted to feel with him.

Arousal with the attraction and now it was reciprocated.

Rather than get off the chair, she waited to see his next move.

He reached for her arm and tugged her off of it. Gentlemanly.

Bummer.

But she remained aroused, which was good.

She expected him to lower his head and start the kiss slow.