Blitz: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romantic Comedy (Blast Brothers Book 3), стр. 62

nervous laugh, I said, "What do you mean maybe? Do you mean maybe you remember? Or maybe you'll tell me?"

"Oh, I'll tell you," he said. "But it's gonna cost you."

I was suddenly intrigued. "Oh, yeah? What?"

"That's up to you."

Now, I couldn't help but smile, too. "Okay…what is it that you want?"

"You know what I want."

Actually, I didn't, not for sure. "You don't mean…that you're still open to having a relationship? With me, I mean."

"That depends."

My stomach gave a nervous flutter. "On what?"

"Here's the thing," he said. "If we're together, you can't play the field. No other guys. You know that, right?"

I scoffed, "Very funny."

"No. I'm dead serious," he said in a voice that suggested otherwise. "I mean, you're a former beauty queen, right? I've heard stories."

"Oh, please," I laughed. "First of all, I was a runner up for a small hometown festival. And I wouldn't have competed at all if it weren't a family tradition. I mean, it's not like I tried out for Corn Queen or anything."

"What, you've got something against corn?"

"No. I love corn. And I love the Corn Festival. But it's not a family tradition, you know?"

He was silent for a long moment. And finally, when he did reply, his voice was quiet in the shadows. "No. I don't know." He gave me a long sideways glance. "You want the truth?"

"Sure."

"My family had no traditions."

"Oh, come on," I protested. "That can't be true."

"No joke," he said. "My parents – they weren't the type."

I couldn’t even imagine. In my family, we had a ton of traditions, and not all of them centered around the Tomato Festival. We had traditions for Christmas and Easter, and even St. Paddy's Day. And we had plenty of non-holiday traditions, too.

If Chase was telling the truth – and it sounded like he was – he had definitely been missing out. I hated that. With sudden inspiration, I said, "You know what you should do?"

"What?"

I turned in my seat to face him. "You should make new traditions of your own."

He smiled softly in profile. "Hard to do when I can't get a nice girl to take me seriously."

If he meant me, I was taking him seriously, probably more than he realized. Still, I hated to assume anything. "You mean me?"

"You see any other nice girl in my car?"

"Well, I don't know," I teased. "Didn't I hear some thumping in the trunk?"

"That wasn't in the trunk," he said. "It was in here." As I watched, he placed a hand over his heart and tapped at his chest to mimic a heartbeat.

It was so silly and romantic that I felt my eyes grow just a little misty. And in that moment, I made a decision – two decisions, actually.

First, I was going to take Chase up on his offer.

And second, I was going to shield my own heart as best I could.

But first things first. "Hey, would you mind pulling over?"

He gave me a worried glance. "Is something wrong? You feeling alright?"

His concern warmed my heart, and I couldn't help but smile. "I'll be feeling great if you kiss me."

He grinned. "Oh, yeah?" And just like that, the car slowed considerably. "So, what are we celebrating?"

I laughed. "How do you know it's a celebration?"

"Because if it's not," he said, "I'm gonna kiss you 'til you change your mind." And with that, he pulled the car over onto the dirt shoulder of the darkened country road. He cut the engine, leaned over the center console, and pressed his lips to mine.

My eyes fluttered shut, and my pulse jumped as our lips moved against each other in the quiet solitude of his car. His lips were warm and soft, and I nearly moaned into his mouth as I laced my fingers behind his neck and kissed him with all of the pent-up passion I'd been storing for who-knows-how-long.

He ended the kiss not by pulling away, but by trailing his lips close to my ear and saying in a low teasing tone, "To answer your question, I'd been about to tell you…"

As he paused to nibble at my earlobe, my mind whirled with curiosity. In the restaurant, he'd been about to share some sort of secret.

But what?

My breath hitched as I said, "Yeah?"

With a final nibble, he said in a near whisper, "You're the sweetest thing I've ever known."

His words warmed me in all the right places, and I turned my face toward his, letting his lips claim mine once again.

Suddenly, it was like neither one of us could get enough. I felt his hands in my hair and tasted his tongue in my mouth. Already, I could feel myself growing wet and slick with longing for more than a kiss.

My stomach fluttered as my head filled with the sudden urge to ask him to turn the car around, to take me back to his condo, or cripes, even to someplace safe and quiet where we could park.

It was such a lovely idea – or so I thought, until Chase pulled back with a whispered curse.

My eyes flew open just in time to see a face at the driver's side window, and not just any face either.

It was my dad's face. And it wasn't a happy one.

Chapter 55

Chase

What the hell?

I looked past Mina to see a woman's face at the passenger's side window. It wasn't just any face. It was the face of Mina's mom.

My car was flooded with light, thanks to the blazing headlights from the truck parked behind us. The truck's engine was still rumbling, a diesel from the sounds of it.

As I watched, the mom gave me a little wave, along with a tentative smile. Unsure what else to do, I lifted my hand and waved back. I mean, this was my girlfriend's mom, right?

My girlfriend.

Her mom.

Shit. How old was I, anyway?

At the moment, I felt more like sixteen than twenty-nine, like I'd just been caught sneaking off with the underage daughter of Farmer Jones – you know, the guy with a shotgun