He hadn’t wanted to talk. Well, not about what was bothering him anyway.
Instead, he’d indulged repeatedly in shots of bourbon as they chit chatted about nothing important until Lucie finally decided it was time to call it a night. Kane had agreed, but when she’d seen his intention to drive himself home, Lucie had interjected.
That was her first mistake of many that night.
Calling a cab hadn’t even been a consideration for her, yet she didn’t know why. It was the first thing she thought about when they encountered someone who had overindulged at the club. She remembered thinking that she would never forgive herself if she let him walk out of there and he was hurt or killed, or someone else was, because of his overindulgence. It had taken remarkably little persuading to convince Kane to let her take him home. After forcing him into her car, she managed to pry the directions to his house from him before he closed his eyes.
She had thought he’d passed out, but when they arrived at his house, he was immediately awake and talking once more. Her intention had been to let him out at the curb and continue on to her apartment, but that wasn’t what happened. He had seemed a little more alert when his eyes opened, and he looked at her, so when he asked her to come in, she’d ignored all of those warning bells that had been clanging for the entire drive to his house.
“Want a drink?” Kane asked as they made it through the front door after he fumbled the keys two or three times.
Lucie knew he was past the point of needing another drink, so she passed on his offer, but followed him to the kitchen anyway.
“No thanks,” Lucie answered, feigning interest in her surroundings.
His house was immaculate, not that she had expected anything less. Kane dressed like a man who had money. He didn’t try to make a fashion statement, but his jeans were always expensive, his shirts always trendy and in style. Not to mention, she should’ve been tipped off as soon as she turned into his neighborhood. She had no idea what kind of money he made as the bar manager, but she didn’t actually care either.
As she stood in the kitchen trying to divert her eyes from the sexy as hell man standing not two feet away, she began to fidget, suddenly wanting to go home. She shouldn’t be there, she knew that much. Not with Kane in his current state of mind, obviously pissed off and now intoxicated as hell.
“I should go,” she said, daring to make eye contact with him.
Kane moved closer, and she could smell his sultry cologne, the scent she dreamed about in the middle of the night. Despite the fact that both of them had that lingering smell of alcohol and cigarettes thanks to working at the bar, Lucie was overwhelmed by the unique scent of him, which overpowered everything else.
“Lucie,” Kane whispered her name as he took two steps closer, suddenly closing the gap between them and effectively backing her up against the granite countertop.
She didn’t break eye contact, noticing the way the steel gray color had darkened, swirling like storm clouds. The single curl that had fallen over his forehead beckoned her fingers to brush it back, and then delve into the silken mass to see if it was as soft as it looked.
“Touch me, Lucie,” Kane insisted, and for a moment she wondered if she imagined it.
There wasn’t an ounce of gentleness in his tone, strictly fierce hunger and need. It was something she’d come to expect from Kane, but never had she expected him to turn the heat on her.
“Touch me, baby,” Kane said again, this time with more insistence.
Lucie knew she should go, knew she should run out the front door and forget this night ever happened, but instead she did what she’d longed to do for the past year.
Lifting her hand, she placed her trembling fingers against the hard planes of his chest, letting the warmth of his skin penetrate through the soft cotton of his t-shirt. His chest was broad and thick, and Lucie was mesmerized by how small her hands looked in comparison to him.
He couldn’t have been much more than six feet tall, but at five-foot-six, he still peered down at her. She could feel his heartbeat beneath her palm, and when she looked back up at his eyes, she recognized the same lust burning bright and hot just as it was in her. She knew that if she gave in to this man, he was going to alter her in ways she wasn’t entirely sure she would be able to survive.
Lucie shook off the memory when she pulled into the parking space in front of her apartment. If she’d have known then exactly how much he would change her life, she would have turned and run like she wanted to.
Without any additional thoughts about Kane or what the night might bring, Lucie ran to her apartment as she considered her surroundings. By the time she was inside, she was breathless, but feeling a little more normal.