Someone hammered on the hood of his truck. Saylor jerked away with a squeak to find a group of younger men jeering and giving the thumbs up.
“Way to go, boss!” one of them called.
Embarrassment hit her cheeks in a rush. “Employees?” she asked, touching a hand to her swollen lips.
“Yeah.” Cole rubbed a hand across his jaw.
A few of the others called out, mumbling things to each other and bursting into laughter.
“I’m docking their pay.” He gave them a flat wave, gesturing for them to move on.
Saylor laughed to break some of the tension, and also because she knew he was joking. In all honesty, she didn’t care that she’d been caught kissing Cole. Her heart grew two sizes in her chest, pumping harder and edging into her disbelief. Could this really be happening? Could she really find someone who would last, who would want her as much as she wanted him—for as long as she wanted him?
Cole shifted the truck into gear, and they drove in awkward silence, neither of them willing to break it first. Saylor wanted to tell him everything she could about herself, and to know everything about him in return. She wasn’t kidding when she said she fell hard and fast and didn’t let go easily. She felt the plunge happening now, her own desperate leap from a bridge over a vast chasm with no bottom in sight.
She’d pushed Caleb away because of that, because of her fierce tendency to fall and hold onto him as her only source of support. She’d probably pushed David away similarly as well. Why did she think she stood a chance with Cole?
He pulled into a posh complex titled Aspen Ridge Apartments, and her stomach cinched tighter as he parked in one of the numbered stalls. 3B. She suddenly wasn’t sure how wise this decision was. This was so much more to her than a casual date or a make out session, and she wanted to make sure he knew as much. She also wanted as much out in the open from the start as she could offer.
“Cole? I hope you don’t mind, but I would like to, well, I have something I want to say.”
He let the pickup idle. The sound of the vents filled the space between them. “Something on your mind?”
She chewed her lip. “Um, you. Since we met, actually.”
A smile eased the concern on his expression. “I like that.” He rested an arm on the console between them. Saylor fisted her hands in her lap, not giving in to the desire to meet him halfway.
“The truth is, I can’t let myself get too far in with you,” she said. “Not until I know where this is headed. I’m sorry. I just want to be as honest as I can from the start.”
Cole sat back. “I understand. I’d like to know where we’re headed as well, but all I can tell you right now is that I really like you, Saylor. From the minute you hurdled the fence at the mall and caught my arm.”
A different kind of heat flushed to her hairline. She dipped her head to hide her smile. “I still can’t believe I did that.”
“I kept cursing myself for finding you attractive because I figured you were probably married. But when I found out you weren’t, I allowed myself to hope in a way I hadn’t for a long time.”
Air escaped her lungs and entered again. She was breathing, pulsing. She was awake. Not dreaming. “Me too,” she told him, shifting in the seat to face him directly. Shades of night swarmed around him, bringing out his features in a different way, darker and more alluring. His intent gaze centered on her, eager, hungry for what she had to say.
She took heart in that.
“I care about you too,” she said. “A lot. And I want you, more than I probably should. I want to see if love is possible for us, the lasting kind where people work through the hardships and grow closer because of them, not farther away. I don’t want to fail at love again.”
His hand reached out and stroked the skin just below her wrist. “You didn’t fail, Saylor. You were in fifty-fifty relationships, where one or both partners give only fifty percent. Marriages that last—love that lasts—happen when both people give one hundred percent. That’s what I’ve heard anyway.”
His touch sent a charge into her pores and straight up her spine. “Then I want a one hundred percent kind of love.”
“So do I.”
“Am I in stalker territory to say I want that with you?”
His eyes were burnished in the darkness. “Not if the other person wants it with you, too.”
Her throat closed. “And—do you?”
She knew it was direct, but she didn’t want to mince words. She had to know, before this got any farther than it already was. This had all happened so fast. She realized she was basically asking for commitment. Yet, it seemed so right.
“I’m willing to give it a try, if you are.”
This time she mimicked him as he leaned across the console. She closed her eyes and released a breath. “I’m not sure I can handle any more of you, Cole Osteen. Every kiss drives you deeper into me.”
He slid his hand to her neck. “I know the feeling. But I can’t seem to stop myself.”
Saylor’s heart pounded. Her lips parted. Her lids fluttered, waiting, aching. Yet, he didn’t close the distance.
Instead, his hand withdrew from her neck. The heat of his body withered, and he cursed, “You’ve got to be kidding me,” under his breath.
“What?”
Saylor opened her eyes to find a woman watching them through the windshield. She was blonde and a prissy kind of beautiful, with perfectly curled hair, made even more perfect by the placement of her gray beanie with a trendy button strapped along one side. A silver purse slung over one shoulder,
