Page 19 of One Filthy Kiss

Preferably naked. With her hair fanned across my pillows, and her legs spread wide inviting me in.

My cock agrees with me.

I cross the room, pull back the comforter, and settle Amber onto the pillows.

The child’s eyes instantly open wide, and she says, “I thought we were getting fries.”

We sit upstairs on the penthouse rooftop eating salty fries, pulled pork, and hamburgers filled with cheese slices,pickles, and tomatoes. The night is balmy, the moon casting a silver glow across the surface of the pool.

I’ve never eaten up here before.

I can’t remember the last time I swam up here. Or drank a beer. Or simply kicked off my shoes and sat back to enjoy the solitude.

“Why do you have a swimming pool on your roof?” Amber asks.

I think about it. “Because there’s no room on the ground. And because up here I can pretend that I’m on an island.”

“I’ve never been on an island.” She slurps her vanilla milkshake through a straw.

It’s been a long day, and her eyes are starting to grow heavy. When she goes to bed, Meggie and I will be left alone without the buffer that her sister provides between us. For the first time in my adult life, or at least for as long as I can remember, I’m not entirely sure how the evening will pan out.

I want her. I want her more than I care to admit. The kiss in the studio… It was supposed to be a demonstration of passion between two people coming together for the first time. And okay, so it was a dick move, but made with good intentions. I thought she was an extra. One of the thousands of actors who struggle for a spot on the big Hollywood screen.

But I got a whole lot more than I bargained for when I kissed Meggie.

The problem is, I’ve no idea if she feels the same way, and knowing what I know about her now, the last thing I want to do is make her feel uncomfortable. I want her to come to me.Because if—when—she does, I’m going to make fucking certain that she never forgets me.

“Perhaps I’ll take you to my island one day,” I say.

Meggie’s eyes flash a warning at me.

But Amber has already curled her legs up on the couch and placed her head in my lap. Within moments, her breathing grows steady, and her body is limp.

“Oh, to be a child again.”

I wait for Meggie to hint that she’s tired too, willing her to tell me, instead, that she could stay up here all night.

With me.

“It’s late, I should take her inside,” she says.

I hear the words, but I sense Meggie’s unwillingness to end the day. Something shifted between us when she talked about her mom on the aircraft. She lowered her barriers just a fraction, enough for me to glimpse the real Megan Walsh. Then, when I gave them a tour of the city, we drifted in and out of easy conversations. We laughed. We held Amber’s hands as if we were a family.

But tomorrow morning, we’ll wake up to a new day, one in which Steve Barone still exists, and the private jet will be waiting to take us back to LA. Meggie will remember that the video of us kissing was on YouTube for a short while, and panic will set back in. I’ll be the enemy again. The man who abducted her and brought her to New York for the breakfast date that never was.

And I will do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening.

“I’ll carry her.” I’m already on my feet.

Back in the apartment, I settle Amber into the guest room, and face Meggie. She holds my gaze. It would be so easy to close the distance between us, cup her face in my hands and kiss her again, but this has to be on her terms.

“I’m going to get a nightcap.” I keep my voice low so as not to wake Amber. “Will you join me?”

My cock bobs inside my pants when she says yes.

I open a bottle of Nero d’Avola and fill two wide-bowled glasses, handing one to Meggie.

She sips her drink and peers at me above her glass. “Shall we go back to the roof? It’s so … peaceful up there.”