Swipe for a Cosmo by Megan Wade
Kellen
After watching her delete that god-awful app, I take her by the hand and pull her onto the dance floor, desperate to get my hands on that body of hers while showing her a good time.
As we sway to the strains of I See You by Jonny Houlihan, I pull her in nice and close, inhaling the fruity scent of her shampoo mixed with the light musk of her perfume. If heaven had a smell, a touch, a taste, it would be this woman right here in my arms. I didn’t realize it right away, but the longer I spend in her presence, the more I’m sure that she’s my one.
“Is the other guy behind the bar your brother too?” she asks, nodding toward where Vaughn is currently pulling a beer while chatting to a regular.
I glance over at him, catching his eye and not missing the smirk that immediately curves his mouth. Vaughn has been known to call me a ‘hopeless romantic’ because I have a habit of falling fast and falling hard when I set my sights on a girl. I know that at the end of the night, he’s going to laugh and roll his eyes when I announce that I think I’ve just found the love of my life, but even he has to admit that I’ve never said anything like that before. I’ve said I had a good feeling, or that I felt a connection, but no one has ever made me feel the way Jade does just by being with her. Ever since we were kids, I insisted that when I met the woman I’m supposed to spend my life with, I’d know right away. My brothers all laughed—my cousins and friends too—but I never let their head-shaking ways deter me from what I knew to be true. My heart would always steer me right.
“Yeah. That’s Vaughn. He’s a couple of years younger than me. And Remy, in the kitchen, is the youngest. Otis is missing from the picture tonight, but he runs this place with us too.”
“So, it’s a family affair?”
“That it is. This place has been in our family since it was built. Our grandparents ran it back in the day, then our parents took over and now it’s the four of us.”
“Four brothers.” She releases a sigh and shakes her head slowly. “Your poor mother must have had her work cut out for her.”
I grin immediately. “We weren’t the easiest bunch, I’ll give you that. But we’re closer than most.”
“Where are they now?”
“My parents?” She nods and I continue. “Retired. They’ve got themselves a cabin in the foothills of the mountain and we all take turns checking on them along with our cousins. Most of the Valentines still live in Whisper Valley or scattered about in the surrounding mountains, so if you meet any other giant men around town, they’re likely kin.”
“Valentine,” she repeats, a wide smile curving her kissable lips. “Just like the bar.”
“Family built and owned.”
“The name suits you.”
“Because I wear my heart on my sleeve?”
She lifts her eyes to mine and nods. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a man as…direct as you,” she says, her tongue snaking out and wetting her mouth like she’s begging for me to take it again.
“I’ve never met a woman who turns me on as much as you do. So I’m inclined to grab hold”—I illustrate my words by tightening my grip around her—“and never let you go.”
With a bright light shining deep in her eyes, she loops her arms over my shoulders and laces her fingers behind my neck as she lifts up on her toes, brushing her mouth against mine. “And I’m just as inclined to let you,” she whispers before pressing her lips to mine, then quickly surrendering as I take over the kiss, delving deeper as I pull her closer and dance slower. Everything about me screams with want and need, and if it isn’t for the fact that Vaughn yells out ‘Last call,’ I don’t think I’d ever come up for air. I could quite literally drown in her and die a happy man. But then again, there’s so much more than kissing to explore with her. And I intend to tick many of those things off my list before the night’s out.
