“Wow.”
“I know.” He was about to say more when he felt Willow’s hand gently glide over his. His throat went dry, and he wasn’t sure if he should acknowledge it at all. Then she wove her fingers with his and he saw her lie back down. “Any chance you know how to play ball?”
She chuckled. “Remember the gym teacher story?”
“Oh yeah,” he said with a soft laugh of his own. “You think you can go to sleep now?” he whispered.
“Mm-hmm.”
When he went to pull his hand away, Willow held tight.
“This is the sort of thing couples might do,” she said sleepily. “We’ll have to move up a level tomorrow.”
Was he dreaming?
Starting to sweat?
Clearing his throat quietly, he asked, “Up a level?”
“Mm-hmm. Hand-holding will only get us so far around Gammy. She’s very affectionate. She’s going to expect to see us snuggling up together on the couch and kissing.” A soft giggle was out before she spoke again. “I don’t know what we can do about the snuggling while we’re driving, but we should definitely practice kissing.”
For a moment, Levi couldn’t respond.
Was she fully awake?
Did she have any idea what she was saying?
“Um…sure,” he said gruffly. “Yeah, uh…we can do that.”
“Mmm…thank you, Levi. You’re a great fake boyfriend.”
And that’s when he felt it. Willow’s soft lips on his cheek. He closed his eyes and stayed utterly still.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly, her breath warm against his cheek. “I thought you said we needed to practice.”
Turning his head slightly, Levi reached up and cupped her cheek with his hand. This wasn’t the way he had planned their first kiss to be, but maybe it was better that it was late and dark and…this.
“Don’t apologize,” he whispered.
“But…you seemed tense, like you didn’t want me to kiss you.”
The darkness of the room, the quiet of the house, and the soft tones of their voices made this all feel so intimate that it was hard to remember it wasn’t real.
“Oh, I want you to kiss me, Willow. And I really want to kiss you.”
Her voice was barely audible as she said, “Really?”
His hand moved to gently wrap around her nape as he moved in and touched his lips to hers. Kissing was something Levi loved to do-he loved the slow build, the teasing before completely sinking into it. But there was a shyness here that he never felt before, and just knowing what he did about Willow, he didn’t want to take it too deep too fast and scare her off.
Little did he know that she would be the one to do it.
Yeah, one minute things were slow and a little timid, and the next she was shifting on the couch to get closer and using one of her hands to mimic his.
It would be wrong to crawl up on the sofa with her, right? To cover her body with his and just…
Willow let out a throaty hum, and the decision was made.
Levi slowly got up on his knees and cupped her face with both hands as he tilted his head and teased her tongue with his. The kiss was deep and wet and so damn good. Her arms went around him as she shifted to sit up. The darkness meant every move was a mystery, every touch was a surprise, and all of it was a turn on.
He lost track of how long they stayed like that. One kiss led to another and then another, and their touches were mostly from the shoulders up. At one point, he let his hands roam up and down her back, but he stopped before he gave in to the temptation to grab her ass and give it a gentle squeeze-something he’d been dying to do for months.
Ever since the day she fell in front of the pub and he picked her up.
When they finally broke apart, breathless and aroused-well, he hoped they were both aroused-they rested their foreheads against each other.
“Wow,” she whispered. “That was…”
“Yeah. For me too.”
“I don’t think we’ll have a hard time convincing Gammy or anyone for that matter that we’re dating.”
Swallowing hard, he gently argued, “Well, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep practicing just to be sure.”
“True,” she said, her nails slowly raking through his hair.
“Plus, it’s really dark in here. It could be quite different with the lights on.”
“Oh...I hadn’t thought of that.”
“You know what that means, don’t you?” he quietly teased, wanting badly to dive back in for another taste of her lips.
“What?” There was wonder in her voice and Levi could imagine her eyes going wide.
“It means tomorrow we’ll have to be sure to try this again in the light of day. Will that be okay?”
Her laugh was the sweetest sound as she rubbed up against him a little and playfully nudged his nose with hers. “Does that mean we have to stop now?”
“Hell no.” Then they were done talking for a while.
6
“Maybe you should ring the doorbell again.”
“Willow, I rang it four times. She’s not here.”
Yeah, that was becoming more and more obvious, she thought. There were no cars in the driveway, no one was answering the door, and…well…that was it.
“What do we do now?” It was a stupid question to ask considering Levi had his phone up to his ear. With nothing to do, she took a few steps away to give him some privacy and thought about all the things she’d learned about Levi today.
They had only gotten halfway through their thirty-six questions yesterday–mainly because they were both easily distracted by the things they were seeing while driving. After saying goodbye to Natalie, Jeff, and the girls–and belting out a lively rendition of “Never Had a Friend Like Me”–they got on the road. They had hit some minor traffic and instantly held hands and it was something she was enjoying more and more.
But not as much as the kissing.
Oh, good Lord, the kissing.
In all her wildest fantasies about what it would be
