“No, don’t do that. I’m fine. I don’t want to undress you one layer at a time.” She zipped my coat up higher and burrowed into it.

“Believe me, I have no problem with that. None whatsoever. You feel free, anytime, every time, to undress me layer by layer until you are warm and satisfied.” I unbuttoned another one to prove my point.

Her hand reached out to stop mine. “Keep your shirt on, Romeo.”

“Why? When we both know you like me best with my shirt off.”

She wiped her hand over my grin, which did nothing but make it grow. “Wrong. I like you best with your ego off. Wanna try again?”

I was about to reply when another shiver ran through Josie. I suppose picking a drive-in movie for a date smack in the middle of March in Montana wasn’t wise. Better luck next time, Black. Pushing away my hopes for what could-have-been, I got ready to stand. “Come on, Joze. Let’s get you out of here before you freeze.” I’d be sure to pick somewhere that didn’t make my date chatter for our next one.

“No, I don’t want to go,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m enjoying myself.”

My forehead lined. “You’re shivering yourself.” I wasn’t cold, but I was probably too focused on Josie to notice the cold, and I’d likely built up an immunity after sleeping in my truck for a few months. I wanted to stay because I wanted to be with her, but not at the expense of her getting hypothermia.

“I’m not leaving, and that’s that. Can we get on with our date now?” She brought the blankets up under her chin and returned her attention to the movie.

I sat there, watching her again, and smiled. Josie wasn’t a laid-back, easy-going woman. She had some serious spunk and fight. Some guys might have been intimidated by that, but Josie’s spunk was what caught my attention years ago. The fight in her had kept my attention. She was the only thing that had my attention. I needed to do something right then so badly my muscles ached from holding myself back. Taking a deep breath, I bolstered up my courage. “I might not have any more blankets, but there are other ways to get you warm.”

Josie’s eyes flashed my way. “What other ways?”

I scooted down until I was propped up on an elbow beside her. My heart was already thundering, and I hadn’t even touched her. “Well, there are lots of other ways, I guess . . . but I had one particular way in mind.”

“What ‘particular’ way is that?” Her voice was a few notes high, and then she licked her lips. She knew.

I leaned in closer until my mouth was just barely above hers. “This way is what I . . .” The fight I’d been battling all night, all month, the past fifteen years, finally became too much. My mouth covered hers, and when it did, Josie let out a small gasp. Shoving my hat off, she weaved her hand through my hair, and pulled me closer.

Oh, dear god . . . Her mouth moving against mine was enough to send me straight through the roof, but then her mouth parted and her tongue pressed into mine, and I almost lost it. Lost whatever I’d been holding on to, whatever had been weighing on me and holding me back. I almost lost it all with one kiss from one girl. If that didn’t make a man stop and reexamine his life, I don’t know what did.

She continued to kiss me like she was finally letting go of everything she’d been holding back while I tried to keep up and hold on to everything so I didn’t let myself go . . . all the way. Because that was the place I wanted to go with Josie. I’d already unzipped the jacket of mine she had on, but I craved more. One hand was twitching, ready to go for the hem of her dress. The other hand wanted to close in on her chest. I drilled my twitching hand into the mattress above her shoulder, bracing myself, but when Josie’s body rocked under mine, sliding so she was directly beneath me, my hand trying to reach for her breasts didn’t need to try any longer because it was there.

“Shit, Joze,” I panted between her unyielding kisses. “I’m sorry. I’m trying to behave.” I squeezed my eyes closed, separated my mouth from hers for a moment—just long enough to gain some traction of control—and forced my hand away from a very nice part of her body.

“It’s okay. You can touch me.” She looked up at me. “I want you to. Just because we’re kissing and touching and . . .” Josie’s hips rocked gently, and I was fairly certain if she did that again, I’d go cross-eyed. “Let’s touch. Let’s make out. Let’s do all of those things you’ve held back from us doing.” I lifted an eyebrow and held onto my last scrap of willpower. “Okay, so not everything everything, but just because we’re not ready to go there tonight doesn’t mean we can’t do more than kiss.” Grabbing my hand, she moved it until it covered her chest again. She lowered my other hand until it curved around the outside of her thigh. As if that wasn’t enough, Josie’s hands slid inside of my shirt, one crawling up my back, the other sliding up my stomach. “Kiss me.” Her lips pressed into the corner of my mouth gently. “Touch me.” Her hand curled into me, her fingernails digging into my skin in a way that made me gasp. Smiling at me, she added, “Preferably both at once.”

I had to give my head a swift shake and pull both of my hands away from the spots she’d adhered them before I could reply. “I’m glad you’ve got that much faith in your willpower, but I don’t have that much in mine.” Josie had taken my breath away again, but in a way I liked even more than the first way. “I’d love to keep touching and kissing. Screw the movie . . . But, Joze, I don’t know how to hit the brakes once I get going. I don’t know how to pull back when I’m supposed to or when you want me to. I don’t know how to stop.” I hated admitting that to her, but I knew the only way we would make us work was if I was honest with her.

“Well you haven’t exactly had a lot of practice, have you?” She smiled and pulled the hand on my stomach out of my shirt so she could cover my cheek.

“Try no practice.” I knew I should probably roll off of Josie and go ice my nuts, but the way she was threading my hair through her fingers as she studied me with that playful look in her eyes made it difficult. Actually, it made it impossible.

“You want to get some?” Josie asked. My immediate response was a wide grin to which she gave a sigh. “Practice. You want to get some practice.”

“And this practice entails . . .?” I didn’t really give a damn as long as she stayed right where she was and kept running her fingers through my hair.

“Touching. Kissing.” She lifted her eyebrows. “Fully clothed.”

I exaggerated a grumble, but I was anything but disappointed. I’d wanted to touch and kiss Josie Gibson for so long, I didn’t care if she told me I had to do it wearing Saran Wrap. The one time I had touched her intimately, I hadn’t fully enjoyed it. She might have been drunk, but I wasn’t. I knew what I was doing, and I knew the girl I was touching wasn’t mine. The girl I wanted to love loved someone else. My best friend.

“I would love to kiss”—I dropped my mouth to her neck and skimmed my lips down it until her skin erupted in goose bumps—“and I would love to touch”—my hand combed into her hair, my fingers trailing through it and giving it a light tug that made her gasp—“you as long and as much as you’ll let me.” Moving my face over hers, I felt the skin between my brows crease. “But you’re right. I don’t have a lot of experience knowing when to quit. Or how to quit. These past couple of weeks, I’ve taken things slow because I kept my hands and mouth to myself, but now . . . Now that I’m touching and kissing you, it won’t be as easy to take things slow. I’ll need you to tell me when to stop. And you have my permission to knee me in the balls if I don’t. I want to make this work, but I need your help.” Saying all that when my breathing was already erratic should have earned me some sort of award.

“You’ve got my help,” she said. “Now would you stop worrying so much and kiss me already? I’ve been waiting weeks for you to finally cross that line, and now that you have, I’d like to get back to it please.”