Page 47 of Misadventures with a Time Traveler

I push away from him.

And this time vow to maintain that distance.

Holy. Shit.

One look at the determined angles of his face confirms my stunned suspicion.

He really did just say…what I thought he did.

I press a hand against the roil in my stomach—until a bubble of laughter replaces it. “Okay. Hold on.” I wag a finger his way. “I get it now.”

Max’s brows jump. “You do?”

“Of course.” I nod, laughing again. “Nice zinger, pal. I dove in too deep on the personal grill-fest, so you lobbed back some briquettes with a prank proposal.”

He gives me half of a brusque shake. “The…prank?” With the other half of the shake, he’s scowling with double the tension.

“Yeah. And very well-played, I might add. For a second, I thought you were actually serious.”

“I am serious.”

“Uh-huh.” I windshield-wipe my index fingers in the air. “That’s okay. It doesn’t matter now.”

He pushes back in on me. His posture is total I’m going to strangle you. The glimmering gold lights in his eyes say something else. Something that definitely involves robbing my breath but in different ways. Not the multiple orgasm kind, either.

“It. Matters.”

I don’t need his bulldog impression to get the point. I show him so by stepping back with more defined purpose. The motion exposes me to more of the wind, gusting uninhibited over the fields surrounding the castle. I claw my hair off my face before lifting my gaze again.

“Come on, Max,” I finally chide. “Let’s slow the roll. We just met last night. Granted, it was the most epic first date I’ve ever been on, but…”

My words are taken over by my grimace. I already hear how I sound and confirm how I feel. Like a Class-A jerk. While the guy lives in the country, he’s not a bumpkin. Still, he’s got to be reading the same page as me, right? Any second, he’ll bust into a laugh that lights up his face, confessing to the cute diversion he tried to get over on me.

Any.

Second.

Now…

But there’s still no laugh from his side of the conversation. Instead, I get a few new glints in his stare, soft yet sorrowful as single candle glows. The little kicks at the edges of his lips convey the same attempt at new cheer. A lame and uncomfortable quest, even from where I’m standing.

Which is way too close.

Because damn it, how I yearn to do nothing but rush over, wrap my arms around him, and comfort him.

And maybe even say yes to his wild proposition…

No.

No!

“Alessandra?”

“Yeah?” And who’s the one sounding desperate and doleful now?

He reaches for my hand. Encourages me to step closer with heart-halting tenderness in his gaze. “Please, ma revelation. Have not a care now. As you said, I was just…lobbing a zinger.”

I release the tightness in my shoulders.