“Is she an old girlfriend?” I just blurted out in my shear panic. SHIT! Shit shit shit! Gunner instantly stopped and sat back. He moved his hand threw his hair….god why did that turn me on so much. I looked away because I thought I already knew his answer.

“No, Ellie she is not an old girlfriend. She is just some girl I took on a date once.” Gunner said as he looked back over at the bar. Why did he seem mad all of a sudden? I guess I had no right to even ask. I mean…maybe I’m just imagining all of this. Was he really leaning down to kiss me? No….he wasn’t you fool. He is just being nice to me because of Jefferson. Or maybe he looks at me like a little sister. I don’t know. I am getting mixed signals here. Fuck…who am I kidding. I don’t even know what signals to look for!

For some reason my mouth was talking before my brain thought it through. “So how come you went out only once. She seemed to act like she knew you pretty well.”

OH.MY.GOD……did I just really say that?

Gunner let out a small laugh. “I only went out with her as a favor for Jeff.” OH??? This has me intrigued now. “Jeff asked Crysti’s roommate Jemma out and she said the only way she would go out with him is if I went out with Crysti. So we all went out on a double date. Longest four hours of my entire life. She is a self absorbed bitch. Same went for Jemma. Jeff was not the least bit interested after about two hours into the date. It was more like five minutes into the date when I lost interest. I remember I kept checking the Rangers game on my phone pretty much the whole time.”

I let out a laugh at the way Gunner described their double date. Come to think of it…..Jefferson has never really had a long term girlfriend. I wonder if Gunner has. According to Jefferson he has not.

“Have you ever been in a long term relationship with anyone?” I asked just as they called out Gunner’s name for our drinks. Gunner jumped up and walked over to the bar. He said something to the guy at the bar who I could tell said ‘sure thing’.

Gunner set our drinks down at the table and then slid back in. This time I noticed he sat a little closer to me. I could practically feel his body heat. Hells bells….there went that ache between my legs again. I squeezed my legs together to try and relieve it. Jesus…..why did I never feel this with Ryan? What was going on with me?

Friends Ellie….only friends.

Just when I thought I was going to explode Gunner started to talk. “To get back to your question Ellie, no I’ve never been in a long term relationship. Longest I ever dated one girl was maybe four or five dates? I don’t remember. It was when I first came to UT.” Gunner said as he took a sip of his drink.

Okay, so shouldn’t I feel relieved that he has never been in a crazy love fest relationship? Or did this just confirm what I was also thinking….someone like Gunner would never settle down with a girl, especially a girl like me. Totally unworthy of him that is all I was.

Once we finished eating our lunch, the guy who Gunner talked with at the bar earlier brought out our tableside S’mores. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. It was a big wooden bowl and in the center was a little burner. Around the burner in the bowl there were two sticks, some marshmallows, a Hershey candy bar and four packs of graham crackers. Gunner picked up one of the sticks and stuck a marshmallow on it. He handed it to me and I roasted it over the little flame. He opened the crackers and the candy bar and had it all ready to go since my right hand was still sore. Good god could this guy just not get any better? Just then my marshmallow caught on fire and I laughed! Gunner grabbed my hand and blew it out then took the marshmallow and sandwiched it in between the crackers and the chocolate. I was still trying to recover from him grabbing my hand and sending electricity through my overly sensitive body when he took the cracker and put it up to mouth for me to eat it.

Holy fuck…he was feeding me the S’mores. Yes…..yes he could get better!

Gunner started to laugh when the marshmallow trailed from my mouth to the cracker he was trying to pull away. I reached up and tried to break it. Shit it was getting everywhere!

We both laughed as he tried to make and feed me S’mores. I totally forgot all about the bitch working behind the bar. At one point I looked up and if looks could kill I would be dead on the spot right now.

Gunner finally ate his last S’mores and walked up to get two glasses of water. Bitch Crysti was trying to make a conversation with him but I could tell Gunner was not the least bit interested. For one brief moment I let myself believe we were here on our first date. It could not have been any more perfect!

Gunner set the waters on the table and then slid back in. “Thank you so much for lunch Gunner this really was fantastic. I will never eat a S’mores again without thinking about you!” I said as I used one of the wipes to clean my hands and mouth.

“Good because that was my plan all along.” He said to me with that smile.

“What was your plan?” I asked as I looked at the piece of marshmallow that was on the side of his perfect mouth. I could not pull my eyes away from his mouth.

“What are you looking at Ellie? Is there something on my face?” Gunner asked with a smile.

I don’t know what came over me but I reached up with my left index finger and tried to wipe the marshmallow off his mouth. Gunner grabbed my hand and before I knew what he was doing he put my finger into his mouth and sucked on it.

Holy hell….I’m pretty sure I let out a moan…..the ache down between my legs grew ten times stronger. I just stared at him. I could not tear my eyes away from his mouth. It was the hottest damn thing I’d ever experienced in my life. I didn’t want him to stop…ever. He slowly took my finger out of his mouth.

“Now that was the best thing I’ve tasted all day.” Gunner said with a wink and a smile. I just sat there stunned. I don’t even think I was breathing. How did he do that? How could he make me want him so damn much? Did he know what he was doing? Surely he knew that was going to turn me the fuck on.

Okay….I had to clear my head and get away from him because I was so ready to just jump on him. NO!!! I could not do this. Gunner was not looking for a relationship and I certainly was in no way looking to let someone in just to get hurt again.

“Um….I guess we should leave don’t you think?” I said as I looked up at his beautiful eyes. His smile faded for one quick second and then it was back.

“Sure, you probably need to get things ready for tomorrow.” Gunner said as he slid out of the booth. He took my arm and helped me up and guided me out the door with his hand on the small of my back. God please help me right now because every time he touched me I thought I was going to explode.

As we stood and waited for Gunner’s truck to be brought back up he made small talk about graduation. What time was it, how long did I think it was going to last? Once we got the truck and got in and started towards my house he started to talk about the graduation party. Talk about trying to keep the small talk going.

“So did you invite any other friends to come tomorrow night?” Gunner asked trying desperately to make small talk.

“Um, yeah, I think Ari was going to invite our friends Amanda and Heather. They’ve been to a few UT frat parties with us so yeah I think they will be up for it.”

“So just three friends is all you are inviting Ells? I mean this is YOUR party sweetheart so you can invite whomever you want. You know that right?” Gunner said as he watched me very closely.

Huh? What was he expecting me to say I was inviting a guy? My heart sank for just a moment. Was Gunner going to have a date there? I started to get angry just thinking about it. Really honestly Ellie….it’s not like he’s your boyfriend.