Page 22 of Honey Undone (The Hornets Nest #5)

JENSEN

A deline opened the door in a pair of tight jean shorts and a knitted crop top that showed off her stomach, it made my mouth dry. I leaned against the door frame, gripping the top frame in my fingers to keep from grabbing her and locking her inside for the next week where only I could see her.

“I’m not changing,” she said, reading my expression.

“I don’t want you to change,” I said, wetting my bottom lip as my eyes traced the script around her thigh. “Unless you want to skip our date and get naked?” I suggested and she rolled pretty eyes at me.

“Going out was your idea and it took me an hour to fix my hair. I’m leaving the house,” she snapped, pushing on my chest with her hand but I didn’t budge. “I have to lock the door, tough guy,” she said as I inhaled her.

“Pay the toll,” I teased with a stupid, lovesick smile.

“What are you, thirteen?” She laughed. “Move.”

“It’s been nearly a week, Adeline, I’m not moving unless you make me,” I threatened. I felt cocky and free. The energy that she gave off surged through me like electricity and I wanted to feel like that every single day of my life.

“You know I can make you right?” She smiled at me and the world slipped off its axis.

"Excessive force turns me on," I whispered as she pushed forward until our shoes met and tilted her chin up to me, obliging in the demand like she hated it but the second our lips met it was clear she had missed me too.

She pulled away too quickly and I grabbed her chin, tugging her gently back to me for another one, “one more?” I mumbled against her mouth, sliding my tongue against her bottom lip as she leaned into me .

“One more." She kissed me again with a tiny hum that vibrated from the base of her throat. I could feel her smile against my lips and allowed me one more quick peck before pushing me backward out of the way.

I choked on my own spit as she turned, the back of her shorts cut higher than the front and showed off the sweet under-curve of her ass.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” I grumbled under my breath.

“Don’t mumble. If you’re going to compliment me," she sounded annoyed as she turned to me with a smug look. "Say it with your chest, Jensen."

“I said, you’re going to be the death of me ,” I lowered my tone and leaned into her space but she didn’t even flinch.

“You sound ungrateful,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes at me.

“Wouldn’t want it any other way,” I hummed, leaning closer but she was quicker and moved clear of the kiss.

“You never told me where we were going in your text,” she said to me as we stepped onto the elevator, I couldn’t help but link my hand into hers just needing her touch.

“It’s a surprise,” I said to her.

“I hate surprises,” she groaned as we made our way to the car.

“No you don’t,” I argued, “you hate not having control of the surprise.”

Adeline eyed me as I reluctantly let go of her hand and opened the door for her. She had left her hair down again and it was even curlier than the last time, messy and bouncy in the wind. Always begging to be touched. She didn’t say anything else as she slipped into the passenger seat.

We’d been in the car for all of five minutes but I couldn’t stand it anymore, my hand slipped over the center, finding the tender skin of her thigh.

My fingers tickled across the raised ink and she parted her legs just enough for my hand to lay comfortably before she closed them again and trapped my fingers against her.

I looked over at her, expecting her to be pissed off at my brazen touch but she leaned back against the seat watching the trees pass by completely at peace.

She liked my hand there. I smiled to myself and turned back to the road.

We only had to go to Lorette for the evening and it was worth it when I pulled into the parking lot of Kojo’s just from the look on her face .

“You did not,” Adeline scoffed and looked over at me like I was insane, her entire body going tense with annoyance.

Kojo’s was the only bar in decent distance that played good country music and I could see the panic setting in on her face as I climbed from the car and opened her door for her.

“Argue and walk,” I said to her when her lips parted to say something. She grumbled at me but climbed from the car.

“Jensen I can’t dance,” she whined and my eyebrow raised at her. “Me dancing around to loud music at the gym is not line dancing,” she argued with my silence.

“Who said anything about dancing?” I smirked, my eyes crinkling at the corners. I placed my hand on the small of her back and steered her inside. The bar was small and packed with people dancing around to the music that blasted from the speakers.

“Everything about this place screams we’re about to dance.” Adeline swallowed tightly and looked up at me with a nervous expression I had never seen before.

“Relax." I tried to soothe her concern, witnessing the tension in her shoulders grow. “I’m not going to make you dance,” I said.

“Yes you are, it’s written all over that stupid, handsome face,” she argued as we wandered toward the bar. I ordered her a drink and watched her down it in one go. I laughed and took the empty glass from her.

“You think I’m handsome?” I leaned over on the bar into her gravity and asked.

“I know you're stupid,” she said with a bite. She was getting feisty because she was nervous and I wasn’t going to lie and say that I didn’t enjoy every second of it.

I wrapped my arm around her waist and started walking us backward toward the crowded dance floor.

Adeline had a smile on her face but I could sense how uneasy she was about it all as she tried to play annoying.

Her footsteps were heavy as she dug her heels into the ground trying to slow our approach but the sneakers she wore slipped against the dancefloor and she couldn’t find a proper grip. I laughed at her subtle outrage .

“Adeline, you play one of the toughest sports in Harbor with more grace than I’ve ever seen on anyone and you’re telling me that you’re scared to dance?” I smirked at her, amused by her scowl.

“It’s a different kind of coordination Jensen, and you know it!” She tried to wriggle free from my grasp but I was determined to get her on the floor and dug my fingers into her lower back, pulling her hips against mine.

“Prove it then,” I raised my voice over the music, knowing that no matter how intense her fear in the moment, her competitiveness would always get the better of her.

“That’s not going to work,” she warned me. Her eyes alight with the challenge.

I leaned in closer and Adeline paused, waiting for me to say something but I just smiled at her before spinning her around so her back was pressed against my chest. “It’s already working,” I said, pressing my lips close to her ear as I wrapped my arms around her waist and rested my hands on her stomach.

“I can’t line dance,” she said again, tilting her head up.

I ignored her protest and slid my hands up her sides as I started to sway us to the music in a subtle attempt to teach her the steps without her realizing. “You can follow, can’t you?” I asked her, my voice muffled in her hair.

Adeline nodded.

“First step, right foot back,” I said, before slowly guiding her arms and legs into the correct position, nudging her with the toe of my shoe. I tried to be encouraging but she was so stiff that it was hard not to laugh, “second step, left foot to the side.”

“There should never be this many instructions to a dance,” she grumbled but she was slowly starting to get it as the music picked up.

“It’s not about the dance,” I said, guiding her through the motions again but faster that time.

“Then why are we dancing ?” She asked, her voice a little less argumentative as she stumbled over a step, groaned and restarted the count.

“Because,” I sighed, kissing the space behind her ear, “it’s a public activity where it’s socially acceptable to have my hands all over you. ”

“You could have done that in my apartment,” Adeline said in a grumpy, frustrated voice but her feet were moving and her heart was racing. I smiled, straightening out against her back and not answering her.

After the hotel I wanted nothing more than to keep her locked up tightly where only I could get at her but… there was something different about Adeline that made me wanna try harder. It wasn’t just about getting in her pants, if I wanted that she’d give it to me, that much was obvious.

I’d never complain either. But I liked taking her out because it forced us to talk, to get to know each other in other ways than physically.

And I liked to show her off, I wanted everyone to know that a girl like Adeline gave me the time of day.

That she was happy with me. Granted maybe that was a little self-conceited but it was also pretty clear that she enjoyed the attention.

“Without an audience?” I teased, hiding the fact that I was desperately trying to hold on to the causal nature of our relationship, my fingers slipping a little more each time I saw her. “Where’s the fun in that?”

“Sounds like a lot more fun than this.” She pushed back, and I groaned as her ass ground against me on purpose. “I’m starting to think you can’t line dance either and that this was all a ploy to get me in shorts,” she teased.

I inhaled her once more, just trying to settle the heat in the pit of my stomach from her teasing as a smile tugged on my lips. She was relaxing, her hips started to move to the music more and she was focusing less on her steps and more on the music.

“My mom’s side is Canadian,” I said to her smoothly, ignoring her accusation because she was half right, it was a ploy to get her in shorts.

“My grandmother and Aunt live on the east coast and I spent formative summers of my life growing up sneaking into crowded, backwater bars that only played country music.”

I hooked my finger into the front left pocket of her jeans and spun her out from me, grabbing her wrist at the last second and guiding her back against the railing that partially outlined the dance floor.

“Now listen,” I said to her over the music, “this is going to make you want to sleep with me and I’m going to need you to control yourself.”

“Cocky,” Adeline mouthed but a smile curled on her lips as she leaned back against the barrier .

I stepped back, grinning as I shook out my shoulders. As the music shifted I looked over my shoulder at her and winked, “watch and learn, rookie,” I yelled with a bout of laughter before taking off across the floor and fell into step with the already forming line of bodies.

Adeline watched intently with a soft smile on her face as my feet moved effortlessly in time with the rest of the crowd. My muscles relaxed as my focus slipped the more I lost myself in the music, a smile spreading across my face as the two guys on either side of me joined into the unbridled fun.

Confidence flooded me and the enjoyment of those around me was infectious.

I moved fluidly with the music, following my newfound friends in the fun as they added in their own touches on the dance.

When we turned back to the other side of the bar, I found Adeline quickly.

Her laughter was loud and unbridled with joy as she watched us dancing around like idiots.

The music swelled and I kept my eyes on her, my heart on fire beneath my chest. I had never been that happy in my entire life and it was almost terrifying to know that she had something to do with it.

As the music died and was swallowed by the sound of another I shook the hands of the guys around me and wandered back through the crowd toward Adeline.

“Alright, that was impressive,” she smiled at me.

I stepped up to her with a satisfied grin playing across my lips as I tried to catch my breath in a smooth way. I placed my hands on the railing on either side of her, trapping her in, “told you,” I said, leaning in so no one else could hear.

Adeline froze as I closed the gap between us, her smile mirroring mine with a tiny laugh.

“Something funny?” I asked her, our faces inches apart. The heat radiated between us and mingled in the air creating a warm bubble of intimacy right there in the middle of the bar.

“No,” she said. Her eyes flickered up, raking down over me and stopping at my lips. “I hate being wrong,” she whispered.

I raised an eyebrow at her, curious about what she could have possibly been wrong about. “Happens to the best of us,” I said with a smug grin.

“It’s going to be an issue,” she hummed .

“What?” I asked her, still sucked into her gravity and itching to kiss her.

“I think you might be even more attractive than you were before,” she started to laugh, sweet like honey and I wanted to steal the sound from her lips.

I laughed gently at her statement, my eyes never leaving hers. The compliment had dug its way beneath my skin and I felt a warmth spread through me that had nothing to do with the dance or the attention. I leaned in further, our noses practically touching. “Is that so?”

“Next date better not be in public, Jensen,” she warned, challenging my resolve and my ridiculous need to keep the flirtatious game we were playing going.

“I don’t have much say in the matter, it’s your pick, remember?” I smiled at her and watched her hazel eyes get a little bigger, the mischief reflecting back at me like stars.