“I dunno. Average hot?”
“Doubtful,” she said.
Then she looked me up and down, slowly. It was darkish in here, but whatever light there was found her eyes and the gorgeous curve of her cheek. My gaze dropped to her sexy lips as she spoke.
“Now, if he was above-average hot… I’d maybe consider it,” she said.
And the way she looked at me…
My dick twitched.
Well, that went in the wrong direction fast.
Change the subject to something unsexy.
“Do you know your brother’s friends well?”
“I know some of them. I wouldn’t say I know them well. Different circles. I don’t see Justice as much as I’d liked to.”
“Why not?”
“He doesn’t come into the city much. He travels a lot. So do I.”
“So why didn’t you want to stay at his place longer tonight?”
She shrugged. “I want to get a good sleep and get back to Vancouver tomorrow as early as possible. I wasn’t in the mood to be up all night.”
“I thought you were always in the mood to be up all night.”
“Not when my brother’s sky-high on blow.”
“You noticed.”
“Yeah, I noticed.”
She didn’t say anything else about it, so I decided not to pry.
Maybe another time. She was already annoyed with me enough tonight.
“You didn’t tell him about me,” I said, treading gently. “You haven’t told him and Mia about the restraining order? The attempted break-in?”
She sighed. “I haven’t exactly gotten around to it.”
“They don’t know about any of it?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I haven’t told anyone in my family. And I don’t know why.” She went silent a moment. “Okay, I know why. I don’t want them to freak out and worry about me.”
“Would it be so bad if your family was concerned about your safety?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“What did you think of the party?” she asked, changing the subject.
“It was… unique.”
She smirked.
“Justice and Mia seem like good people.”
“They are. The best people.”
“Who’s Trevor?” I asked, not-casually. “Or Toxic or whatever his name is.”
Summer eyed me. “One of the hottest DJs in the country. I told you that.”
“You know him well?”
“Are you asking me if he and I are an item?”
“If you are, I need to know it.” That came out a lot more growly than I meant it to.
This jealousy bullshit was really gonna have to go.
Small problem with that: I couldn’t really see myself ever being okay with her hooking up with Trevor the hot DJ… or anyone else.
“No, Ronan. He’s not my boyfriend.” She raised an eyebrow at me. “Or my boy toy. Or my anything. We’re friends. And colleagues, obviously.”
“Right.”
“Why do you ask?”
I chose my words carefully. “You seemed to be in each other’s space a lot while you were playing.”
Yeah. I sounded jealous as fuck.
When did I get so fucking transparent with women? Last I heard, I had the strong-silent-type thing pretty down.
Something about Summer made me lose my grip on that. She made me lose my grip on a lot of things.
“So we could hear each other over the music,” she said, studying me. “We were catching up. I haven’t seen him in a while.”
I decided to believe what she was telling me and stop fantasizing about tossing DJ Toxic with all the K’s and S’s off his Ewok tower.
“You had fun?” I asked her.
“I always have fun.”
“Uh-huh. Why don’t you want your family to know about what happened?” I just couldn’t stop pressing on that.
Summer sighed again. “Because I love them. And they love me. And I’m afraid they’ll be overly concerned, and it will interfere with their lives.” She studied me in the near-dark. “I’m safe, right? I have you.”
Well, that felt way too good. Those words, out of Summer’s mouth… I have you.
And the way she was looking at me…
Almost made my dead, putrified heart sneeze out a dusty beat.
“You need to tell them, Summer.”
“I know.”
I looked away.
There was a strange, awkward silence, while I felt her staring at me… and my heart tried to cough to life like a revived corpse.
I coughed.
“Are you cold?” she asked me.
“No.”
“I feel kinda bad. I’ve got all this faux fur.”
“I’m fine. I’m cold-blooded.”
“I would laugh, but I’m pretty sure you’re not joking.”
I said nothing.
“Should we put on music or something?”
“I don’t mind silence,” I told her. She knew that by now. But then I reached deep into my frozen, empty chest cavern and dug out the words. “I like it better when you’re talking to me, though.”
I could still feel her staring at me. It was like the left side off my body was thawing from a deep freeze.
I didn’t mind silence. Usually. Right now, it was kinda torture.
So I decided to fill it.
“I guess the fact that we haven’t seen a single other car out here, heading home from the party, would’ve been a clue that we were on the wrong road,” I offered. Maybe it was my way of weaseling around an actual apology. “You know, if I’d been paying attention.”
Instead of trying so hard not to pay attention to you.
“Well, since you seem unaware, I’m here to inform you,” she said. “No one leaves a party like that before dawn.”
I looked at her, and I could make out her eyes, locked on mine in the near-dark. “Except us.”
“Except us.”
“I’m sorry I got us stuck,” I said.
“I could’ve been a better navigator,” she admitted.
And as she stared at me, and I stared at her… I realized how close we really were. I realized how long we might really be here, alone.
And I realized I was in trouble.
My heart was suddenly thumping in my chest.
Actually, it was fucking pounding.
And I had a bad feeling all kinds of shit was about to fall out of my mouth without my permission.
“You’re annoyed with me,” I said.
She made a little tssht sound, like, No shit. “Ronan. The way you evacuated your hotel room this morning really pissed me off.”
“Right.” I probably should’ve said something more compassionate and useful, but my dick had stiffened when she said my name. It sent shivers down my back, like she’d just clawed me with her fingernails.
“But… it’s a lot more
