Keane settled in close, not saying anything, just being a silent, badass presence. Craning her neck, she found him giving the Chocolate Candy Cane Guy a death stare that would’ve made most people pee their pants.
Chocolate Candy Cane Guy gave a little start, cleared his throat and looked at Willa again, an apology in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t realize you were . . . on a date.”
“No worries—” she started but he spun on a heel and vanished into the crowd. She turned to face Keane. “Seriously?”
“What?” he asked innocently.
“Oh no, you don’t get to ‘what’ me like that,” she said, saying the word what in an imitation of his own much lower timbre. “What the hell was that?”
“Me getting you candy.” He held up the bag.
“No, you just peed on me in public.”
His mouth twitched.
“You did!” she said, tossing up her hands. “You totally intimidated that poor guy and all he was doing was talking to me.”
Keane looked after him. “You think I was intimidating?”
“Enough to make him go crying for his mama.” She jabbed him in a rock-solid pec. “You can’t dominate me like that. I don’t like it at all.”
He smiled, but it was a little bit like the Big Bad Wolf’s smile as his hands went to her hips. And right there, surrounded by a crowd of people, none of whom were paying them the slightest bit of attention, he hauled her into him.
“I’m not done being mad,” she said.
“I know. It’s okay.” His hands slid up her arms and cupped her jaw, warm and strong. “You just tell me when you’re done.” And then his eyes went dark and heated as he lowered his head. “I’ll wait . . .” And then he kissed her.
The air around them crackled and in spite of the cold night, the heat between them pulsed and ebbed. Willa felt the rumble of his rough groan as he palmed the back of her head to hold her to him. And just like that, everything around them faded away to nothing more than a dull murmur in the background. There was nothing past the feel of Keane’s strong arms around her, the steady beat of his heart thudding against the erratic pace of her own.
Eyes closed, she felt herself melt into him, their bodies seeking each other as if they’d been together for years. It actually scared her and she clutched at him.
In response, he slowed the kiss down, soothing her until they stilled entirely, mouths a breath apart but sharing air. The night breeze caressed her face along with his fingers and she opened her eyes.
His face was shadowed but she wasn’t afraid anymore. Feeling almost like she was in a dream, she went back up on tiptoe and lifted her hands to the nape of his neck, the silky strands of his hair slipping through her fingers as she pulled his face back to hers. “When,” she murmured against his mouth.
The last thing she saw before her eyes drifted shut again was his smile.
She parted her lips for him eagerly, desperate for another taste, and felt a heat wash over as his hand fisted in her hair. Unable to get close enough, she paused, moaning at the feel of him hard against her.
When he finally lifted his head, she was breathing like a woman who needed an orgasm.
Bad.
She did her best to look unaffected, but he laughed at her. Laughed. And then he took her hand and they walked back to her place.
As they got off the elevator, Keane felt Willa squeeze his hand and look at him as she unlocked her door. “What?” he murmured.
“You okay? You seemed a little off when you first came over, and it’s back now.”
He was a stone wall when he wanted to be, or so he thought. But apparently not with her, because she put a hand on his chest. “Tell me what’s wrong?” she asked softly.
It’d been a damn long time since someone had asked him that question and meant it. But he didn’t do this, he didn’t unload. Ever. She didn’t need the burden of his aunt’s illness, or the odd sense of limbo his life had become as he sat in his big Vallejo Street house night after night making up reasons not to sell it and move on, so he shook his head.
Her hand slid up his chest, her palm once again settling on the nape of his neck, her fingers sinking into his hair.
Clearly she also knew just how much he loved it when she touched him like that.
“Keane, when you ask me if I’m okay, you expect honesty, right?”
His brain was more than a little scrambled by her touch, which was arousing as all hell and took away his power of speech, but he did manage a nod.
She nodded back, as if to say good boy, as her guileless eyes met his. And then she moved in for the kill.
“So why would I expect anything less from you?” she asked softly. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“You first,” he said.
“Me? What about me?”
“You could tell me about this morning, when I walked in on you and your employees having what seemed like a pretty serious confrontation.”
“Lyndie screwed up,” she said. “She then ’fessed up, the end.”
“Not the end. What you did, letting her off the hook like that, it was really generous. Incredibly so. Anywhere else, anyone else, would have fired her, and you know it.”
“Everyone deserves a second chance,” she said. “Now you.”
Letting out a low laugh, he pressed his forehead to hers, stepping into her so that they were toe to toe, letting his hand come up to cup her face. Knowing her better now, knowing the incredible woman she was, she truly amazed him. She’d overcome a rough and dark past, and yet she was an incredible light.
One that drew him in.
Neither of them had been given much love, but she hadn’t been stymied by that. Instead she’d turned it around, giving it back wherever and however she could.
And what had he done? He’d blocked himself off. Yes, he’d made a life for himself too, and a damn decent good living while he was at it, but he was still closed off. It was hard for him to open up but he wanted to try, friend zone or not. “Now me,” he repeated softly.
She nodded. “Now you. Tell me what’s wrong, and what I can do to help.”
“What’s wrong is that I need you,” he murmured, dropping his head to kiss the underside of her jaw. “What you can do to help is let me in.”
She was ego-strokingly breathless from his touch. “You’re already in,” she panted.