Chapter Twelve

Mia’s plans scattered across her table were more organized and neater than his, but they both outlined the same problem.

Now they weren’t just competing for customers, they were competing on growth times and who could offer what and when.

And he was asking her to dinner and kissing her in her bedroom and enjoying her way too much.

Maybe his dad was right to think Dell was foolish. Being here reeked of exactly that.

“You can back out, Dell.”

He frowned at her. She smiled sheepishly, putting her purse down on the counter and walking to the opposite side of the table.

“It was nice of you to offer, but—” she gestured toward the papers “—this is more complicated than we seem to want to give it credit for. I mean, you don’t see the head of McDonald’s and the head of Burger King making out, do you?”

Dell snorted out a laugh. “Probably for other reasons. Not to mention, we’re not exactly at a McDonald’s level of business here.”

“Not monetarily, but doesn’t it mean enough to you to think of it that way?”

Dell touched the expense sheet with all Mia’s meticulously written figures. It wasn’t millions, but it meant more than money, that was for sure. She had a point.

This week kept getting shittier and shittier. Which didn’t seem fair. Dell looked up from the papers, studied Mia. Her mouth was curved into a rueful smile, but she seemed disappointed, too.

He’d never seen much sense in self-sacrifice unless it was directly tied to the farm, and this was tied to the farm, but it didn’t feel very direct. Screwing with Mia was definitely wrong, but she had said she wasn’t exactly saving herself for some white knight.

“You said you wouldn’t mind a few Mr. Wrongs, right?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“Well, I’m not looking for Mrs. Right. So, maybe we just enjoy each other no matter how wrong until this stuff gets in the way.” Didn’t he deserve something that was fun and not stressful?

“You’re suggesting we…” She blinked, her cheeks faintly pink.

He grinned. “I’m suggesting we have fun. Till it’s not.”

“Oh.”

Yeah, he really deserved something fun. Something good. Mia was definitely both of those things. “So, what do you say? I’m starving.”

She blinked a few more times, then smiled brightly. “Yeah. Let’s do that.” Slipping her purse onto her arm, she shuffled the papers into a pile.

She walked toward the door and Dell followed. When she stopped abruptly, he almost ran into her.

She looked at him, brows drawn together. “Is this one of those keep-your-enemies-closer things?”

He wanted to laugh, but she seemed so serious. “Not a lot of farmer espionage that I know of. What am I going to find out? You’re planting beefsteak tomatoes instead of Snow Fairy?” She looked so uncertain Dell was compelled to wipe it off her face. “I just like you, Mia.”

Her mouth curved even as the pink in her cheeks deepened. Something about her response made him feel less like a pansy ass for vocalizing it.

She fiddled with her purse strap, opened her mouth silently, then closed it. It was baffling he found that attractive. Probably made him some kind of weirdo.

Well, so be it. “Going to say something embarrassing, sugar?”

Her nervous fidgeting stopped abruptly and she narrowed her eyes at him. “Watch it, buddy. You’re not half as charming as you seem to think you are.”

Dell chuckled. “I charmed you right out of doing your laundry on a Saturday night. My powers are endless.”

She rolled her eyes, but there was humor in her curved mouth. “Moron.” She turned to the door, then opened it before stepping outside. Dell followed, not sure what he was doing. Not sure what his end game was.

Maybe there was no end game. But what did that mean? He usually had a pretty clear idea what he wanted out of a relationship. Mia complicated everything.

She locked her door. “For what it’s worth,” she began, her face angled toward the doorknob, expression obscured by dark, “I just like you, too.”

Dell scratched his fingers through his hair. Maybe it was the fact he’d spent more time on the farm the past year than on his social life. That had meant spending a lot of time with a family who might love him, but didn’t always like him.

Mia’s simple statement meant a lot. A lot more than he was comfortable with.

* * *

Mia shifted in the passenger seat, then mentally scolded herself for fidgeting like a dog waiting for a treat.

She’d made it through the date portion without saying anything too embarrassing at dinner. But now…the quiet ride home, the is-he-going-to-kiss-me anxiety. She was bound to say something really dumb.

He pulled his truck up in front of her apartment and Mia couldn’t possibly keep herself still. What was supposed to happen now? How was she supposed to act? How was she supposed to send the right signals to say she was open for a goodnight kiss, perhaps a little more than a goodnight kiss, but not too much more than that?

So, of course, she started babbling. “Um, well, that was nice. Fun. I mean, good food and conversation and—” Mia took a breath, noticing his bemused expression. “And shut up, Mia,” she said, shoulders hunching.

“Relax. For some strange reason I find the babbling insanely cute.”

“Ew. Cute?”

“Sexy. So sexy.”

How he managed to keep a straight face she didn’t know, but then he leaned over and kissed her and she really didn’t care.

When he pulled away, she wanted to hold on. She wanted the moment to last, to go longer, to move forward. Not all the way forward, but at least a little bit. Waiting twenty-six years to have any decent interaction with a guy, let alone a hot guy, made her want to make sure she got as much out of the deal as possible.

“Um, you could come in. Not to, you know, but um, we could…” Oh, she was an idiot.

Dell squeezed her hand. “Come on.” He got out of his truck and she scurried after him.

“How do you do it? The confidence stuff. I mean, is it all centered on being good-looking or is there some trick to it?”

“To being confident?”

“Yeah! I’m all awkwardly inviting you into my apartment to not…”

“You can say it. It won’t kill you. Promise.”

Mia took a deep breath. No. Nope. She could not say it. It really might kill her. “The point is you’re just walking up to my door without a care in the world, and I’m sitting here obsessing like a crazy person over whether or not I used the right inflection on the words ‘you know.’”

“You’re not crazy. You’re quirky. And I’ve had a little more practice at walking up to girls’ doors. Both with and without the end result being sex. You said you like me. I can tell you like it when I kiss you. What would I have to not be confident about?”

“What if I’m lying?”

“Why would you?”

She stood on her porch trying to work through his logic. There were plenty of reasons why people lied. Why people pretended. The fact Dell didn’t think them possible made her wonder if he ever lied or pretended.

At least when it came to this, what would he possibly get out of lying or pretending? He routinely had a line of women ogling him. Surely if he was here with her it was because he legitimately wanted to be.

She wasn’t sure how to make out what that meant.

“I know you said ‘you know’ is off the table.” He made little air quotes with his fingers and she wrinkled her nose. Then he grinned and something in her stomach started doing cartwheels. “But I can kiss you, right?”

It was a question, but of course he knew the answer. He wouldn’t have that cocky grin on his face if he didn’t know the answer. Could he kiss her? She couldn’t think of a time the answer would be no.

He raised his eyebrows expectantly. Oh, right. She should probably say something instead of standing around like a dummy. “Um, yeah. You can kiss me.”

He didn’t waste his time, and thank God for that. With her mouth occupied, she couldn’t say anything embarrassing or otherwise.

His fingers brushed her jaw, then traced down her neck while he nibbled at her mouth until she was pretty sure her bones were dissolving.

He was really, really good at that.

The kiss deepened, and she pushed onto her tiptoes, but she didn’t know what to do with her hands. Touch him, but where? How? Before she could run through the possible list of wheres, Dell’s hands circled her wrists and pulled until her arms were around his neck.

That worked. Even better when he nudged her against the door and there was nothing between them.

The nerves were still there, but excitement and anticipation jostled for space so she only felt a vague sense of nervousness while her brain remained blissfully quiet.

He tasted like the mints they’d gotten after dinner and something she couldn’t identify. Maybe it was unique to him or maybe it was just what kissing was like.

His body was pressed to hers, her back against the door. He was hard, and she was totally giddy over the fact she’d given a guy an erection.

His hand moved down her neck, following the neckline of the sweater she was wearing. He was going to touch her breast. What was she supposed to do about that?

When his hand brushed over her, his thumb circling until her nipple was erect, she forgot all about what she was supposed to be doing and just enjoyed. Because, wow, that was amazing.

“You just tell me when I need to stop, okay?”

It bolstered what little sprouts of confidence she had to hear his breathing as uneven and unsteady as her own. This wasn’t just excitement because she was such a novice, this was actually really good kissing. She nodded and then his mouth was on hers again and she couldn’t imagine ever wanting to stop.

He pulled away again. “Maybe I should go.”

“I thought you were going to come in.” She felt the heat move to her face, but then decided she wasn’t embarrassed. He was kissing her and liking it and wanting to go home couldn’t mean she’d done anything wrong. He was into this as much as she. It was too obvious to doubt.

“I want to come in. I do. Maybe…a little too much.”

“Oh.” Mia licked her lips. She really, really didn’t want this to be over. “Come in anyway?”

In his pause, a million insecurities tried to take hold of her brain, but then he kissed her again.

“Open the door.”

Hands not quite steady, a fact she’d blame on nerves and giddiness, Mia dug her keys out of her purse and unlocked the door. His hands wrapped around her waist as she opened it, and he propelled her forward, his mouth on her neck.

“Couch?”

Mia nodded, scurrying to move her laundry out of the way. Then they were sitting on the couch. Side by side.

If he didn’t kiss her soon she was going to say something stupid. She could feel it bubbling up, so she shoved her palms under her thighs as if it might stem the tide of idiotic rumblings.

“You okay?”

Mia nodded emphatically, realizing too late it was way too emphatically and now she looked like a crazed bobble-head doll.

But he looked at her and smiled. “You look really good tonight.”

She suddenly understood why women got stupid over men. A good chunk of her brain melted away at the compliment.

He leaned toward her, his fingertips circling a design on the inside of her wrist. It took every ounce of willpower not to whimper or squirm.

“You’re fun, too,” he said, his mouth close to her ear, his breath warm against her skin. “Easy to talk to. Who would have thought?”

“I probably could have told you that. You just wouldn’t have believed me. I might be awkward, but I’ve always been easy to talk to.”

He laughed against her temple, then kissed her there, her cheek, her mouth. It was awkward on the couch with their height difference and her neck would probably have a crick in it by the end of the night. But, jeez, who cared? His hand was venturing toward breast territory again.

Eek. Yay.

He shifted. She shifted. The ancient couch squeaked beneath them. It was hard to find a comfortable spot. Mia wasn’t about to complain when Dell’s lips were on hers.

Dell broke the kiss, frowning. “Why don’t you sit on my lap?”

Mia pulled back, nose wrinkled. “Isn’t that weird?”

“How is that weird?”

“I don’t know. I associate lap sitting with Santa, and in this context…weird.”

Dell shook his head, and then pulled her to him so she had to straddle his lap. Her knee pressed on either side of his thighs and, oh, holy moly, if she scooted just an inch or two forward she could press herself against him, very, very intimately.

His hands slid down her back, then slowly pulled her forward those last few inches. The jittery nerves in her stomach were no match for the fizzling heat of excitement. She planted her hands on his shoulders to keep herself from wiggling against him. Was that appropriate? Was that crazy? She really just wanted to know what it might feel like. The friction of him against her. With their clothes on, it didn’t seem scary at all.

One of his hands toyed with the ends of her hair, the other resting just to the side of her breast.

And then he grinned. “Still thinking of Santa?”

“Oh. No. Nope.” She couldn’t pick out Santa in a lineup at this point.

He kissed her again, his hands roaming down her back. She let her own glide over his shoulders to his chest. He was all hard muscle and when she moved a little against him he groaned.

She had just made Dell Wainwright groan. She was beginning to think this was all a very realistic dream. And then he moved against her, and the friction between them was a breath-stopping, thought-stopping pull of excitement and arousal.

Up to this point she hadn’t considered having sex with him tonight. Not on the first date. Not without some kind of mental preparation, but this was…was…

Really, really hot.

Maybe it would be best to do it without the mental preparation. To get it over with. Like ripping off a bandage.

His hands slid inside her shirt, his callused palms rasping against the smooth skin of her back. She wanted to do the same. To know what his skin would feel like. To test this theory that—

The door flew open. “I hate you, you stupid jerk!” Cara stumbled in, almost landing on her butt before kicking the door closed.

Mia tried to scurry off Dell’s lap but they got kind of tangled in the process.

Cara glanced over. “He broke up with me for his stupid ex-girlfriend.” The words were slurred as she stepped toward the couch. She squinted at them before her face went comically shocked.

“Oh, my God.” Cara stumbled toward them. “You were finally going to have sex and I totally ruined it. I’m the worst.” She dropped on the sofa next to Dell, who promptly stood up. “No wonder Kevin dumped me. I totally suck.”

“I’m gonna go.”

“Oh, God.” She smacked a hand over her mouth and made a run for it down the hallway. Mia covered her face with her hands.

This was almost as embarrassing as blurting out she was a virgin.

“Now that I have your number, I’ll call you, okay?”

The sound of Cara puking echoed down the hallway. “Yeah. I’ll hold my breath.”

Dell squeezed her arm, leaned far enough to kiss her cheek. “I’ll call you tomorrow.” And then he left.

She was going to kill Cara. D-e-a-d.

But Dell had said he would call her and while she might not have a lot of dating experience, she had been on the receiving end of more than her share of brush-offs, all those times she’d tried to insinuate herself into a group and been denied. This didn’t feel like one.

Still, if Cara hadn’t come home, maybe things would have progressed. Maybe…

Well, maybe didn’t matter. It hadn’t happened tonight, but the next time he asked her out, it was going to happen. Nerves or no nerves, she was going to take that final step, and it was going to be damn good one way or another.