Page 64 of Perfect Enough
I placed my hand on the side of her face, my thumb caressing her soft skin. “I know exactly what you mean.”
Her eyes lifted to meet mine. “But…I hope you know I don’t expect anything from you.”
Confused, I asked, “What do you mean? If you’re talking about a relationship, I want to see where this goes between us, Sophia.”
“No, no…I don’t mean… I mean, I want that as well.” She blushed—hard. “I just don’t want you to think I expect you to sleep with me. I know how important it is for you to…um…wait.”
Smiling, I lifted her hand and kissed her wrist. “I’ll be honest with you. I’ve been tempted to give in to my physical desire before, but never enough. With you, though…there isn’t a night that’s gone by since we started fake dating that I haven’t imagined what it would be like to make love to you.”
Her eyes went wide. “Really?”
I let out a soft laugh, feeling my own cheeks heat. “Really.”
“But…just know that I’m okay if we wait.”
Something in my chest felt like it burst wide open, and warmth filled my entire body. “Thank you, Sophia.”
She reached up and gently brushed her lips against mine. “Besides, there are other ways we can fulfill that desire.”
My body instantly tightened, and it took everything I had not to explore those other ways with her right here and now. “We’d better leave before I beg you to show me an example.”
Laughing, Sophia kissed me again, and we started back down the short trail to the horses.
Two seconds after walking into the River Rising Bakery in downtown Hamilton, all eyes were on Sophia and me.
She stepped a bit closer to me, and we both smiled.
“Josh, what a surprise to see you! We haven’t seen you in forever,” Julia Webster said as she dropped off food at a table. “Come on in, sit anywhere you want.”
I placed my hand on Sophia’s lower back and guided her to a booth in the corner.
After we both slipped in, she looked at me and whispered, “Is it just my imagination, or is everyone staring at us?”
I opened the menu and replied, “No, they’re staring.”
“Oh,” she said, opening her menu. She lowered it and asked, “Why?”
“Probably because Josh here has never stepped foot into this restaurant with a beautiful woman on his arm.”
Sophia and I both looked up to see Nathan standing at the end of the booth. He wore a shit-eating grin as he bounced his gaze back and forth from me to Sophia. “Aren’t you going to introduce us, cuz?”
Sighing, I put my menu down. “Sophia, this is my cousin, Nathan Shaw. Nathan, this is Sophia Montgomery.”
Nathan slid into the booth next to me and put a hand out. “It’s a real pleasure to meet you finally. And please, call me Nate.”
“Finally?” Sophia asked, her brow raised as she gave me a questioning look.
“I told him about you.”
“I see,” Sophia replied, giving Nathan a sweet smile.
Nathan simply smiled back at her. Never before had I ever been jealous of my cousin, but suddenly, I wanted to push him out of the booth and tell him to take a hike. Turning my gaze back to Sophia, I was relieved to see she wasn’t fawning over Nathan. Usually, women batted their eyes and somehowmanaged to show more cleavage the second his attention was on them.
“Is there something you wanted, Nate?” I asked, making my annoyance clear over his interruption.
“Can’t your favorite cousin come over and say hi?”
“Not when you live down the road from me and I see you nearly every day. And certainly not when I’m on a date.”