Those green eyes blinked at him slowly. “It is casual.”
“The f**k it is. And the f**k I’m your rebound guy from Dildo either.”
“Rebound guy? That’s what Addie said you were?”
“Yes.” He paused. “Am I?”
Rory didn’t deny it. She suddenly became very interested in the carpet.
His stomach roiled. “Rory?”
Addie yelled, “Come and get it!” before Rory had a chance to respond.
During dinner Dalton had fun reminiscing with Truman and hearing some of the things Addie and Rory had done over the years.
They left after dessert—the separate cars thing sucked, but Rory didn’t balk when Dalton suggested he stop by her place for a little while.
Her dog Jingle met him at the gate. “Hey there. Remember me?”
Jingle sniffed and licked. Then her tail started to wag. “You’re a good guard dog.”
“She thinks she’s a guard dog but she’s scared of squirrels.”
“Well, we’ve all got fears.”
“Even you?”
Especially me, especially when it comes to you.
Seemed more of a rhetorical question as Rory held the door open for him.
Dalton stole a kiss as he brushed past her. He took a look around her place as he shed his outerwear. Such a contrast between Rory’s home and Addie’s. Nothing matched in Rory’s space. The furniture, the pictures hanging on the wall, even the objects decorating the room were colorful, funky and decidedly bohemian. He loved this place that was so perfectly Rory.
“Would you like a drink?”
“I’d love it, but I gotta drive home, so I’ll pass.”
“Sit down. Take a load off.”
He waited to see where she sat and then parked himself right next to her.
“So it seemed like you and Addie were all right,” Rory said.
“I’m happy for her and Truman too. He apologized for beating me, but swore he’d do it again if I got it in my head to try and win Addie back.”
“That’s just ridiculous. You’d never do that. And Addie is madly in love with Truman, so she wouldn’t throw him over for you anyway.” She sighed. “Guys. It’s three things with you. My dick is bigger than yours, I make more money than you and I can beat the f**k outta you.”
“Pretty much.” He stretched his arm across the back of the couch so he could toy with her hair. “Add in I can outdrink you, outdrive you and whip your ass at cards and that’s the brain of a man.”
“You forgot the ‘and I can f**k any woman I see’ too.”
“Nope. That falls into fantasy territory for most guys.”
“But not for you, or any of the McKays,” she retorted. “Alls you gotta do is crook your little finger and women drop to their knees in front of you.”
Dalton tugged her closer by her hair. “Alls you gotta do is say the word, sugarplum, and I’ll be on my knees before you.”
That shocked her.
Good.
She squirmed away. “So was it weird? Seeing Addie?”
“I guess. But to be honest, when I saw her, I felt nothing except an almost giddy sense of relief.” Instead of meeting Rory’s eyes, he focused on a metal candleholder on the table across the room. “I walked into that house and thought, this would’ve been my life if I’d married her. Sensible couches, floral curtains, shelves of knickknacks. An ordered life.”
“That’s not what you want?”
“No. I would’ve suffocated. I’m relieved she found a man like Truman who thrives on it.”
Rory’s fingers touched his jaw. “I’m glad you didn’t tell her that you dodged a bullet by not marrying her.”
“I do have some tact,” he said testily. “A lot more than I used to have.”
“Oh yeah? Prove it.”
He locked his gaze to hers. “For instance, I’m imagining all the ways and all the places I want to put my mouth on you.”
Heat flared in her eyes before she banked it. “What does that have to do with tact?”
“I’m keeping the explicit details to myself. Isn’t that the definition of tact? Stating the truth in an inoffensive manner.”
“Having tact means you shouldn’t have said that at all.”
“That right?” He twined a hank of her hair around his finger and stared at her. “Guess I don’t have as much tact as I thought. Because I’d like nothin’ better than to strip off your jeans and spend an entire day with my face between your thighs. Maybe saying that makes me tacky, but I won’t lie or pretend that I haven’t been thinking about it nonstop.” He changed the subject. “How’s the special project goin’?”
“Too early to tell only two days into it. I’m still setting up databases.”
“Do you like that part of the job?”
“It’s part of it whether or not I like it, so it’s easier to suck it up and just do it rather than complain. I knew what I’d signed on for when I went to work for a governmental entity. But if I’d known my freshman year in college what I know now? I would’ve chosen a different field of study.”
“Why’d you choose Ag management?”
“I had visions of saving the herds of wild horses. Creating sustainable wildlife habitats. Protecting species from extinction. But with the emphasis on Ag in my degree, I’m dealing with an entirely different area. I should’ve gone into wildlife biology with a minor in Ag management.” She sighed. “Getting a master’s degree was a no brainer when UWYO offered to pay for it.”
He continued to play with her hair. “From the time we were kids I always thought you’d be a crusader for a cause. But something more rebellious and outside the norm. Becoming a pirate to stop whaling and the clubbing of baby seals.”
She smirked. “Like fighting against man’s need to conquer the animal kingdom by destroying habitats?”
“Yep.”
“You disappointed in my more practical choice of being a nine to five government lackey with health benefits and a dental plan?”
“Not on your life, jungle girl.” Dalton leaned over and kissed her.
Rory shifted to sit on his lap; her hands cradled his head as she took control of the kiss. Sweetly seductive, a little hungry, a little fierce, completely captivating.
It took every bit of restraint to act passive when he had visions of kicking the coffee table over, pinning her to the carpet and f**king her until she came at least twice.