Page 158 of Reckless
That one simple word hit me harder than it should have, a date.
I looked at him and for one stupid, shining second I wanted to laugh and cry and kiss him all at the same time.
My mouth softened before I could stop it.“Okay.”
His eyes held mine as they shone.“Okay.”
And because all my best decisions involved not letting myself think too hard before acting, I crossed the last distance, put my hands on his chest, and kissed him.
He made a low sound against my mouth, liked I delighted him.
The kiss was warm and easy and full of all the things that had become ours too quickly for either of us to properly guard against, trust, heat, that odd deep relief of being near each other without having to pretend it meant less than it did.
When I drew back, he looked at me like the whole night had already improved beyond his expectations.
“I could get used to this,” he said.
My heart did something humiliating.I smiled anyway.“Don’t say emotionally destabilizing things to me in my own foyer.”
His mouth tipped.“You kissed me first.”
“Correct.”I grabbed my bag from the chair by the door.“That does not make you innocent.”
“Didn’t claim innocence.”
“Good.”
We left.
Xerses opened my car door.I paused with one hand on the frame and looked at him.“You’re doing that a lot.”
“Yes.”
“Why.”
His gaze moved over my face, then back to my eyes.“Because I like taking care of small things for you.”
That should not have been sexy, but it was.I got into the car before my body could make its opinion on that too public.“Promise me please one thing.”
“What?”
“Don’t chase a gift.I hate losing people I love.”
“I won’t.”
He drove with the windows down and one hand on the wheel and the evening air moving through the car around us.And because the whole point of this was apparently that once the truth had been said, everything could get both simpler and deeper at the same time, the drive felt easy.
“You seem suspicious,” he said after a few minutes.
“That’s because you are driving like a man with a secret.”
“I do have a secret.”
“That is not reassuring.”
“It’s not meant to be reassuring.It’s meant to be interesting.”
“The last time you were interesting, I ended up crying on a sidewalk.”
