“So what do you do when they ring?” he asks, flipping them on, one by one.

“Nothing.” I sigh, exasperated with myself as I drop my head back on my pillow. “I just make sure everything is calm and quiet. Then I fall instantly asleep.”

Watching him turn on the last alarm clock, I rest my head on the pillow again and look at him. His face etched to perfection, creased with puzzlement as he finishes his task.

He smells really good. Like incredibly good.

“Are you mad I didn’t tell you? When you asked before?” I’m worried. I can’t help it.

He raises his eyes to meet mine.

Is there tenderness there? I feel mushy under his gaze.

“No,” he says. “I could tell you were evading. I knew there was more. You going to be okay?” he asks, his voice husky with tenderness as he tips my face up by the chin.

“Hmm. Stay.”

I don’t know if he will. He heads outside. I hear him make a call. He comes back in, tilts my chin back up.

I like it so much I want to push the rest of my face into his hand. “I can’t stay,” he says.

“You can’t? Or you don’t want to?”

“I can’t. It’s not just your scent. You do shit to me. You understand?” His eyes blaze in the shadows—the heat and intensity roiling in their gold depths making my stomach constrict. “The only thing that can keep me away from you tonight is distance.”

I nod, ever so slowly.

“It’s not convenient for you, is it?” I ask, breathless.

“No, bit, it’s not convenient.” His smile is devastating as he pulls up my covers. “I thought I finally had my shit together and then you come along to fuck it up. You tend to do that to me—you really are quite the Wicked Miss Kelly.”

I grin.

He brushes his thumb over my lips. One second.

The best second of my adult life.

“Good night, bit.”

“’Night.”

We stare at each other for longer than necessary, then he walks away.

When my alarm sounds at 1 a.m. all I know is all is okay, but it’s not, not really, and I don’t know why it doesn’t feel like it is.

Christos

12 1/2 years ago…

I ask Cole where she’ll be Saturday—he tells me at Kelly’s, so I stop by the department store and find her behind a register, giving instructions to a new employee. She spots me and her honeyed eyes widen in surprise. “I’m taking a small break, but call me if you have any questions.” A pop of pink appears on her cheeks as she hurries out from behind the counter and toward the west side of the ground floor.

I follow her down the hall and toward a small office with her mother’s name, Katherine Kelly, embossed on it.

She walks inside, grabs a drink from the fridge, and offers me one.

I shake my head and just smile—taking a good look at her. Enjoying how frazzled she seems by my presence.

She takes a huge sip, leaning back on her mother’s desk, then she sets the drink aside. “What?” She touches her mouth, as if she thinks she’s got something on it.

“What what?” I counter.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“How am I looking at you, bit?”

She struggles for a reply, her cheeks very flushed, very fucking adorable. “You look like a boy who thinks he’ll get to kiss me.”

My eyebrows rise. “I’m not a boy.”

She clears her throat, bristling and turning around. “No, but you’re kind of a jerk.”

I grab her wrist, smiling as I turn her back. “I will kiss you though.” At her wide-eyed look, I nod. “Cole told me he told you I like you.”

“He did, did he? Cole’s been very busy.”

“He’s an idiot.”

She bites down on her laugh. “Then why are we discussing him?”

“Because in this case, lips…”—I lift my hand to grab her by the back of the neck, my other hand coming to her mouth, unable to keep myself from touching the soft, silky flesh—“he’s right.”

I brush my thumb over that mouth. Sexy little Bryn Kelly. One day, she walked in with her father to the shop where Cole and I worked. I went stone cold. She glanced at me before leaving, and I almost went and searched her pockets to see if she’d taken my brain with her.

I can’t think of shit since I met this girl.

She’s younger than I am, and shy. From a well-known family. Better than I deserve.

But I want her anyway.

I want to treat her like a princess, wish I could offer her the treasures of a queen. My mother is dying. The only thing keeping Cole and I in Austin is her. This is where she was born. This is where her roots are.

I’ve hated everything about Austin except

This

Girl

HERE.

“In fact, I think I’ll kiss you right now.” I continue to purposefully touch the bottom lip she bites.

God, that flush is adorable.

I lean closer, brushing my lips over hers with only my thumb between us. “Go out on a date with me,” I coax.

She whimpers.

I drop my thumb—my lips touch hers for the smallest fraction of a second before she flushes and drops her head, and I lower my hand, giving her room.

“I can’t. I need to work,” she whispers.

Can’t even breathe right, I’m so lust-ridden. I just want to taste those lips some more. Taste all of her.

She’s beet red now and turned around to give me her back. I’m watching her fidget with stuff on the desk. “Let’s meet after work. Before work. I’d say during work, but I’m not sure you’d enjoy greasing irons for fun,” I say, my lips hiking up at the corners.