I’m an idiot. Plain and simple.
The rest of the night, all I can think about is touching Millen again. I find myself watching him when he’s not looking, hearing his laugh across the bar as he chats with one of the regulars. My eyes drift his way just to watch his head drop back as his deep chuckle washes over me.
This isn’t normal. This can’t be right. How can a man I barely know reach inside of me and twist me inside out without doing anything?
By the time last drinks are called, Gaby has a knowing glint in her eyes that means I’m in for it.
When the last customer walks out the front door, she bends down and opens the drawer under the bar, pulling out my purse and handing it to me. “I’ll close up. Bruno’s already agreed to stay behind and help out. Your chariot awaits.” She winks at me and tilts her head to the side where Millen is nursing the last dregs of the soda I served him thirty minutes ago.
I raise my brows. “You sure? I should be the one telling you to go.”
“Yes, and you do it all the time. But it’s not every night you have a hotter than Hades guy wanting to take you home.” I open my mouth to protest her assumption—God knows why—but she stops me in my tracks. “And don’t deny it. He’s been watching you like a starving man in desperate need of a long, cool drink, i.e. you, all night. Don’t make the man wait any longer or he might start humping the barstool. Get. Go, and call me tomorrow with all the juicy details.”
Biting my lip, I pull her in for a hug. “Nothing’s going to happen but I love you anyway,” I whisper.
We pull apart and she grins at me. “Make sure you at least get a cheeky grope of his ass, because I swear you could pop pennies off it and he wouldn’t feel a thing.”
“You’re shocking.”
“That’s why you love me. Now, scoot,” she says, pushing me to the edge of the bar.
“Okay, okay, I’m going. Sheesh. I’ll be speaking to your manager, lady.”
“Yeah, yeah, I bet you’ll tell her how truly horrible I am for making her leave early. Hey, hottie,” she says, calling out to Millen. “Make sure my girl gets home safely. I want to know she’s tucked up tight in bed before curfew.”
“With pleasure.” He shoots me a wicked smirk as he stands, waiting as I round the bar and move over to him.
“Don’t encourage her. I’ll never hear the end of it,” I say, reaching his side.
Holding his hands up in mock supplication, he protests innocence while his amused eyes promise anything but. “I’m just doing what she told me to do.” He wraps an arm around my back and pulls me to his side, bringing his mouth to my ear. “Home to bed.”
Those words on his lips in that husky whispered tone send a wave of something very good coursing through me.
“Let’s go then,” I reply just as quietly, patting myself on the back for masking just how affected I am.
“Lead the way,” he says, and yes, Kenzie Sharp leaves her place of work hand in hand with a guy who’s taking her home. For the first time in a long time, I’m playing hard to get, and Millen seems to revel in my resistance. Who would’ve thought?
“Where are we going?” he asks, turning right as we reach the sidewalk. He leads me toward a gunmetal grey BMW, beeping the locks and opening the passenger door.
I drop my purse onto the seat and lean back against the car, bracing my hands on the metal frame and looking up at the advancing man crowding me in. “Do you know the area?” I ask, biting my lip to hold back a smile.
“Nope.” His eyes darken and in the dim light of the parking lot, I wonder just how wise this plan of mine is to keep him coming back for more without getting the ‘more’ he wants.
“So I could say anywhere and you wouldn’t have a clue where it was then?” My breath catches in my throat when he presses his body into mine, bracing his hands on the car roof and dipping his head to run his nose along the exposed line of my collarbone.
“How do you do that?” I rasp, locking my knees to stop myself from melting at his feet.
“Do what?” he asks, this time brushing his lips against the curve of my jaw, bringing his mouth closer toward mine without going in for the kiss I now desperately want.
“That.”
“God, I could so easily slip my hand down your pants right here, couldn’t I? Would you let me kiss your moans and feel you come apart against my hand as I wrung every last ounce of pleasure out of you?” He punctuates every word with a grind of his hips against mine. My hands shoot out to grab his hips.
God, I want to kiss him. I really want him to do exactly what he just said he could do. Because there’s no point denying that right now I’d totally let him do that. Right here in the parking lot of my place of work, not caring if anyone came upon us…
That thought snaps me out of it. As much as I’d love to let him do anything he wants to me, it can’t be here.
I open my mouth to say exactly that when he beats me to it. “You’re turning me into a caveman. You know that, right?” he says, brushing his lips against my cheek and pulling back, his eyes still burning hot.
“I don’t think it’s me.”
“Oh, it’s definitely you. I better get you home before I forget about doing the right thing and go ahead and do the thing we both want.”
“Are you sure that’s not the right thing?”
He narrows his eyes at me. “You’re trouble.”
“And you’re such a good boy,” I reply with a sly smile.
“If only you knew how much I wanted to kiss that grin off your face right now.”
“If only you knew how much I really wanted you to do that,” I reply. He smirks and shakes his head at me, his eyes roaming my face. “You do know that all this touching and talking is like the world’s most potent foreplay.”
That earns me a groan. “In the car, before I forget about being a gentleman.”
Lifting my hand to my chest, I feign shock. “You’re a gentleman?”
“Only in public,” he says, his dark eyes zeroing in on my lips again. “It’s when we’re alone that you should be worried about.”
“He says as I’m about to hop into his car,” I mutter as I lower myself into the passenger seat.
“You’re probably safe while we’re in the car too.”
I open my mouth to reply but am met by the car door being shut and after twenty seconds, Millen taking the driver’s seat beside me. “We should go, because my self-control is wearing thin.”
I’m glad I’m not the only one. I give him my address and a few moments later we’re pulling down the main street, heading toward home.
“You’re not from around here I take it?” I ask once we’re on our way.
“You got that, huh?”
“Well considering I’ve lived here for all but the six years I was in San Francisco and I’ve never seen you around, I’m pretty sure you’re not a local.”
“I live in San Francisco; I was in So-Cal before that. Grew up in Madison County, Arkansas and moved to San Diego when I was ten.”
“Well, color me surprised,” I tease. “I was guessing you were big city born and bred.”
“It was the shirt and tie yesterday, wasn’t it?”
“There wasn’t a tie by the time I saw you.”
He meets my eyes and grins. “So you did see me first.” Dammit—walked right into that one.
“I saw you when you were talking to Bruno.”
“The bouncer?”
“Yep.”
“Good guy. Scary as hell though.”
I laugh because Bruno may be big and gruff but he’s a big teddy bear on the inside. “He’s good people.”
“I got that impression.” Comfortable silence falls between us as the car passes through the main part of town and heads into suburbia.
“So, Millen Ross, if I’m letting you know where I live, you’re going to have to tell me another thing about yourself.”
“Am I now?” he says with a quirked brow.
“It’s the least you could do.” I shoot him a huge smile and don’t miss the growl that rumbles in his chest as he pulls up to a red light.
“That smile will get you anything you want, Kenz. But you know that, don’t you?”
“Perhaps,” I reply, running my tongue along my bottom lip, earning me a groan. The light changes to green and he takes off again.
“What would you like to know, devil woman?”
I look out the window and think about what I could ask, wondering whether there’s anything he could tell me that would be a deal breaker other than him already being involved with someone. Or a serial killer… a con man…
Out of those, there’s only one other thing that’s important.
“Are you single?”
“Do you think I would’ve come back to see you tonight, stayed till closing talking to an old guy about his days working on the railway, and be driving you home to bed if I was seeing someone?”
“You have no idea what some people are capable of.”
“I do, but that’s another story for another day.” The car slows down and he turns into my driveway, pulling to a stop and shutting off the engine.
He spins in his seat to face me, his hand reaching over the center console and tangling his fingers with mine. “I’m not involved with anyone, and I don’t want to be seeing anyone other than you right now. That’s why I will be right here, next Saturday night to take you to dinner, because I like the way you make me feel and I want the chance to make you feel the same way. If that’s dinner and conversation, followed by whatever it is you want to do after, then that’s what we’re going to do.”
I lean into him until my shoulder touches his, liking his restraint, liking his words, and liking the curve of his lips as he says them. Lips that every part of my being wants to touch, to taste, to lose myself in after the last few hours of what has been the most torturous foreplay known to man.
Reaching up, I run my fingers over the coarse stubble covering his jaw. His eyes flare, amping me higher on this roller coaster ride I’m reaching the precipice of.
His gaze drops to my lips then back to my eyes as his hands frame my face, his fingers flexing against my jaw. Without another word, he moves in and brushes his mouth against mine, flicking his tongue against my parched lips before easing back. His gaze searches my face, as if to seek approval.
By the time we pull apart we’re both breathless, my entire body alive and wanting more from this man, needing another kiss, something to keep this feeling I never want to end.
He tucks a stray tendril of hair behind my ear, a knowing smile curving his mouth. “Now I promised to get you tucked up in bed, but I think I’m gonna have to stop at your door.”
My brows scrunch together and I avert my eyes, not wanting him to see my disappointment…
He traces my jaw with his thumb then gently tugs my lip free and moves in until he’s all that I can see. “If we’re alone inside your house, my plans for being a gentleman and going at your pace will go right out the window.”
Now I wish we were about to walk through my front door. “Okay,” I whisper.
“Good choice, but don’t think for a minute that I don’t want you. The thought of my empty hotel room pales in comparison to taking you to your bed and taking my time.”
“Okay,” I repeat, the words barely audible as the breath in my lungs decides to take a holiday.
His hands fall away and we both shift back, me needing the space to clear my head because another kiss like that and I’d be pulling him from the car and dragging him to my bed. The fire in his eyes tells me he’s contemplating doing the exact same thing. “Give me your phone,” he says gruffly, extending his arm.
I grab it from my bag and give it to him. A few moments and finger presses later, he hands it back to me, wrapping his hand around mine.
“Now,” he says, lifting my fingers to his lips, not breaking eye contact, he brushes his lips against my skin. “You have my phone number and when you text me during the week to confirm our date, I’ll have yours.”
“Wha—”
He presses his index finger against my lips and gives me an utterly irresistible smile. “You wanted me to prove myself by turning up tonight—”
“Which you did,” I mumble against his finger.
His grin widens, his eyes softening as he moves his hand to my jaw. “Fuck, you’re adorable. Yes, I did. So now, this is your way of showing me that you’re interested. I’ve got to head back home so if I don’t hear from you, I’ll know you’ve had second thoughts, without needing to have any awkward face-to-face conversations.”
“I don’t need to think about it.”
“Take a few days. You might find you just like looking at asses you can pop pennies off—”
“Oh my God,” I reply, turning away. I’m going to kill Gaby next time I see her.
“You can, by the way.”
I furrow my brows. “Can what?”
“Pop pennies off it.” That sexy smirk of his—dimples and all—will be my undoing one day.
“I’m gonna kill Gaby,” I mutter.
He chuckles and lifts his other hand up to cup my cheek. “You’re cute when you’re flustered.”
“No one’s cute when they’re flustered,” I huff.
“You are,” he says, kissing me softly and touching his forehead to mine. We sit there like that in his car, parked in my driveway, just breathing each other in. “I’m serious about texting me. Think of it as my challenge to you.”
“You want me to prove my intentions?” I whisper, shocked and kind of impressed at how he’s turned my play back on me.
“Maybe my ego needs to know you’ll be thinking about me once I drive away.”
I look deep into his eyes. There’s a flicker of amusement there but I sense some truth in that statement. He needs proof that it’s not just him feeling this too. “I can do that.”
“Good,” he says, giving me one last kiss, a long, slow, re-stoke-the-fire one that sets the blaze right back up to scorching again. “But now I’m forcing myself to walk you to the door otherwise we’ll never get out of the car.”
His half-smile gives away his desire to do exactly that but we have next Saturday. He’s showing me he can—and wants to—respect my wishes even if I’m seriously reconsidering why I made them in the first place.
That was all before he kissed me.
But we have a week to rue the day we both decided to torture ourselves. I’m sure I can survive until next Saturday.
Watching him from my lounge room window, I wait until he’s just about to pull out of the drive before I press send on the text message I’d written while I watched him walk back to his car.
Me—I don’t need a few days, I don’t even need a week, so I’ll tell you now: I’m sure about whatever this is and want to explore it more. Pick me up at six p.m. Saturday.
Then I send one more for good measure.
Me—And pack a bag.