"But I didn’t let you trust your instinct.Why do you trust me if you don’t know me well enough, and I've
never done anything to help you trust me?"
Elaine took a deep breath.
"Have you opened up to m e?" Ian looked at her.
"It’s not too late yet."
Elaine paused because she didn’t know what she could learn about him, so she hesitated.
"You will answer no matter what I ask?"
Ian fell silent for a moment.
"It depends."
"If you’re just toying with me, then I’m going to leave."
She had a temper too.
Elain put down the cup and got up to leave.
Ian grabbed her by her arm, which made her stumble and fall into his arms, frozen.
Ian put his arm around her waist, and she could feel the warmth.She pressed her palms to his chest
and started to feel hotter through her hands.She couldn’t look up at him.
Ian gulped and froze too.
Elaine took a peek at him.
He had two buttons undone, it was late autumn, and the air conditioning was turned on, but he looked
like he was sweating.She started burning up too.
"I’ll lower the temperature."
She got up, but Ian pulled her back into his arms.
"It’s not the air conditioning."
"What—"
She stopped mid-sentence and didn’t continue.
Even if she had never experienced this, she wasn’t dumb! Ian rested his chin on her shoulder while
breathing heavily and smiled.
"Stay here.It’ll be fine."
Elaine’s face turned even redder, but he was very good at calming himself down.
However, Elaine couldn’t calm down because his breath surrounded her, seducing her.Her lips were
dry.
"Do you want to let go of me first?"
Ian said, "You need to get used to it sooner or later."
"If you continue hugging me, I’m afraid that...I might”
"Might what?"
His voice sounded right next to her ear, and his breath brushed her neck, making her shudder.
Elaine chuckled.
"What else could happen between a man and woman? I might not be able to control myself."
Ian smiled widely as he leaned closer to her neck.
"We've already come so far."
She immediately changed her tone, "I was just joking."
Ian let go of her, and she scooted back into her seat and thought that it was time to leave.
"I need to go."
Elaine got up and walked to the door.
Ian’s voice came from behind.
"I'll pick you up tonight."
"What for?" Ian smiled.
"What do you want to do?"
Elaine choked.
"Dinner."
He leaned back.
"Anything you want."
Elaine didn’t stop walking.
After getting out, she slapped herself for not thinking before speaking.
After it got quiet indoors, Ian looked up at the ceiling, his chest heaving.
It took a while to calm down.
Elaine had said she might not be able to control herself, but he was the one who was going to lose
control.
He had underestimated her influence.
Nicholas’ birthday dinner was the next night.
Waylon was on the flight back while Colton and Daisie picked up their grandfather’s birthday present.
Once they left school, they asked the driver to bring them to the mall.
"How about a parrot?"
Daisie pointed at the huge smart-looking parrot standing in the rack in the yard.
Colton squinted while he walked toward it.
The parrot tilted its head, looked at him, flapped its wings, and chirped happily, "Big spender, big
spender."
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda