“Hey.”

The word is half hissed, half whisper-shouted from the alley. I’m busy trying to give my best smile to the crowd of people walking past, but this is hopeless. I should have known it would be a hard sell the moment I stepped out here. I need high school kids or college students home for the summer, not tourists. Most of those people, if they’re in Lakewood at all, already have jobs for the summer. I can’t imagine coming here unless you had something locked up. Or unless it was a summer cottage situation.

“Psst.”

It could be anyone. It could be some asshole coming to harass me for having the balls to open a second coffee shop in Lakewood. But I risk a glance over toward the direction of the alley.

It’s Ellie, her ponytail hanging low behind her head.

“Come over here,” she hisses.

“They can all see you,” I tell her, facing the street to Medium Roast, where there is still a crowd gathered at the curb, though the fiery appearance by Ellie earlier seems to have taken care of the sign.

“They’re not looking,” she stage-whispers. “Morris is trying to figure out a chant. Look.”

She’s right.

“Come over here. But make it look natural.”

I turn and stride over to the alley. By the time I wheel around the corner, Ellie has flattened herself against the wall.

“What are you doing?”

She takes my shirt in her fists and yanks my face down to hers. “This.”

For all her begging last night, she’s not about to say please. Our lips crash together in a whirling mix of stress and relief and sweetness and hurt, all of it set free right here in the alley. She’s got the scent of espresso all over her but she tastes fresh and clean.

I only get a grip when she moans into my mouth. “Ellie,” I mumble against her lips, trying to pull back. She won’t let me at first. “We’re in the alley—”

Her eyes open wide. “Shit. I’m going to have snuck over here for nothing.”

“Let’s go.” I take her by the hand and hustle her toward the side door. We’re inside The Coffee Spot in less than ten seconds, both of us breathing hard, checking over our shoulders. 

Ellie bends to look through the main room to Medium Roast across the street. “Do you think they saw us?”

“Probably.”

She looks for another long moment. “Nah,” she decides finally. “They’d be over here at the door if they knew I was about to get nasty with a city slicker like you.”

I shake my head. “They’ve been standing over there all day. Do you really think...wait, what?”

Ellie pulls her head back into the narrower side room and puts her hands up on my chest, backing me against the wall. I think it’s going to be a continuation of the alley, but instead, she stares at my chest like it’s going to reveal something to her. Then she turns her head to the side and lays her cheek against the fabric of my shirt.

My arms go around her on instinct and she relaxes against me. My mind grinds to a halt, clicking uselessly against itself like an engine that won’t turn over. I want her here in my arms forever. I want to be doing so much more than hugging.

Ellie takes a deep breath in and lets it out, then tilts her face up to me for a kiss that sends pleasure ricocheting in slow motion all through my arms, my legs, my chest. It’s a slow and steady kiss, the kind that puts us right in the center. What else matters? Nothing but this. With her tongue playing at my lips I don’t care at all about The Coffee Spot, or finishing anything that I’ve started other than this kiss.

She makes a sound deep in her throat, high and pleading, and it throws us full speed ahead. One moment I’m hugging her and the whole thing is pretty fucking chaste for two people who couldn’t even take the time to find a bed last night. The next moment she’s clawing at my shirt and I have her face in my hands, commanding her movement, claiming her as mine all over again.

I ignore the nagging feeling that she’s not. Is she? Is now the time to say something about it?

No. Now is the time to act.

“Oh, God,” she breathes, cutting her eyes toward the windows that overlook the alley. “We can’t…”

I turn her, moving her effortlessly until I have her backed into a corner. It’s the only corner in this entire space that’s not visible from the alley. She’s a puppet in my hands, holding on for dear life, eyes closed, and I love it. I love every second of it. I love stripping her shorts down to her ankles and pulling one of her feet out. I love taking her panties in my hands and tearing them apart, the fabric ripping along a front seam. And I love lifting her into my arms, bracing one hand against the wall, and letting her wrap her legs around me.

She came here ready, and I sink into her like last night never ended. Ellie rocks her hips forward against mine, and I press my lips against her collarbone. Her heart is beating fast underneath her skin. Mine matches hers, pounding, my skin tingling with the risk of all of this. Of getting caught. Of putting my business in the center of a scandal.

Of falling in love with her.

Ellie is a thunderstorm, intense and strong as a lightning flash, and she cries out into the side of my neck as she comes. I release into her, her ass balanced perfectly on my hands, her weight against me, and it’s the riskiest thing I’ve ever done because I’ve already fallen.

I’ve fallen for her, and nothing will ever be the same.