Maybe I couldn’t compete with New York City, but I could offer her a new beginning. She could begin again – with me. Back home. Where she belonged.
“Oh, shoot,” Annelise said, staring at the neon clock behind Waylon. “I should get going. I just wanted to stop by and say hello.”
Annelise leaned in, wrapping her arms around Dakota. I was beginning to think that grin was a permanent fixture on her round face. The girls exchanged numbers and the second Annelise left, Dakota spun back around toward me.
Our eyes locked, refusing to let go until one of us gave. It wouldn’t be me. I’d never give in. As far as I was concerned, there wasn’t any other girl on God’s green earth more worth waiting for than her.
“You enjoying yourself?” I asked, breaking our silence.
“I think so,” she said, her voice sweet off her cherry lips. Her nails drummed on the counter.
“You think so?” I quoted her. “Tell me, sweetheart, what can I do ensure that you’re really enjoying yourself?”
She rubbed her lips together and cocked her head to the side. “You could kiss me again.”
Did I hear that right?
I scratched the side of my chin, throwing her a cock-eyed smile. “Baby, I’d love nothing more than to kiss the hell out of you right now, but you’re not quite in your right state of mind.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because you just downed two shots of tequila and you’re looking at me like you’re one more shot away from jumping my bones.” I smirked. “All you’ve done since you’ve been here is remind me that you’re here for work and you have no intention of entertaining any kind of physical relations with me.”
She swung her leg over the other, crossing them as she leaned into me.
“Waylon, another drink please,” she said, her eyes locked into mine. “Dirty martini. I’m in the mood for something classic.”
Desire stirred inside me, tightening my ribs and sending a twitch to my palms as I forced myself to resist her a bit more. Dakota was a strong, intelligent woman who loved a good challenge, and it suddenly dawned on me that I still knew her better than anyone else did. Forget the fancy clothes and expensive hairdo. She was still the same driven, ambitious, and impossibly stubborn girl she’d always been. I should’ve known throwing myself at her wasn’t going to work.
“You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into, Kota.” I flashed a warning smile.
“Maybe. Maybe not.” She leaned an elbow against the bar, her dark hair falling down her shoulders. “Maybe I’m not exactly in a mood to care right now. Maybe I’m feeling…nostalgic. And maybe you should seize the opportunity while you still have a chance. You know what they say, here today, gone tomorrow.”
“Aw, now, that’s just the booze talking.”
She shook her head. “Not entirely.”
Waylon sat her martini glass on a napkin and left to help another patron. She placed a single finger into the clear drink and pulled it out, slipping it into her mouth and tasting the cocktail before going after the single green olive.
“I don’t know why you’re pretending you’re not loving this right now,” she laughed, her hand brushing against mine and sending a jolt of electricity across my skin. “You’re eating this up.”
“I’m not pretending anything. I’m taking my time. Going to make you work for me, honey.” I finished my beer, and the second the final drop slid down my gullet, I knew I had to get her home before she changed her mind.
We danced a fine line, power transferring back and forth between us with each exchanged look, each wicked smile, and each raised eyebrow. Second by second, her tenacious fa?ade faded and my determination to make her mine all over again thickened.
“I hate to interrupt, but you two are making me very uncomfortable right now.” Ivy hopped down off the bar stool, and I caught a slight flush in Dakota’s cheeks as we both realized Ivy’d been sitting there the entire time. “I’m no fortune teller, but I can see where this is headed, and a girl knows when she’s outstayed her welcome.”
Dakota hung her head, dark hair falling into her face as she attempted to hide a smile.
“Goodnight, sis,” I said. “Kiss those babies for me.”
Ivy threw me a wink as she hitched her purse over her shoulder, giving me a kiss on the cheek and rubbing Dakota’s back as she headed out.
“Waylon,” I said, turning his way. Pulling my wallet from my pocket, I slapped some bills on the counter and slid them down. “We better be on our way. Thank you kindly for the good time.”
Dakota’s eyes widened as I took her hand and pulled her out to the car.
“We just got here,” Dakota said.
“Yeah, and now I’m taking you home.”
The second she reached for the door handle, I placed my hand over hers, stopping it. With my body pinning hers to the car and her back pressed against me, I ran my fingers through her dark hair, pulling it away from her neck. Whispering into her ear, I said, “You’re mine, Dakota. You always have been. You always will be.”
A soft sigh left her mouth as my lips burned into the flesh of her neck, just above the bend of her shoulder.
“And I’m yours. I don’t belong to anybody else but you,” I breathed. Kissing her detonated an all-consuming animalistic passion deep within me. “I have half a mind to take you right here in the parking lot and show you exactly how much I’ve missed you, but I won’t do that because you’re a proper lady, and my daddy raised me right.”
She melted back against me, her head resting against my shoulder. I watched as she bit her lip, waiting for me to make the next move. With my hands gripping the indentation above her hip, I spun her around to face me.
“If I lived a hundred lifetimes, Dakota, I’d still choose you every time,” I said, crashing into her mouth and taking her full bottom lip between my teeth. The day I found her again, it was like everything I’d ever lost had come back to me. And seeing her again, though time had changed her and made parts of her barely recognizable, I could still see through to the heart of her. “You should know that.”
Her hands lifted above my shoulders, her fingers tugging on the ends of my hair as she kissed me back. My mouth lingered in the space above hers for a moment before claiming her berry lips all over again, breathing my soul into hers and hers into mine.
“You’re the notes,” I sighed, breathing her in. “The lyrics. The music. The paper. The ink.”
The wind played with her long hair, wisps tossing themselves in her face. We were all trying to get a piece of this beautiful woman. Me. The earth. Her fans. Her job. Everyone who’d ever come into contact with this fascinating creature had somehow dug their claws into her, and no one had the good sense to let go.
She pulled away from my kiss, resting her head flat against my chest. While the rest of the world saw an impeccably outfitted, successful woman with a dazzling smile who oozed grace and elegance the way most twenty-somethings never could, I saw a sweet-natured girl who’d been stuck in survival mode her entire life.
“Take me home, Beau,” she whispered. “I want to feel again.”