Dan seemed able to pull himself together much faster than I could. Wrapping his arm around my waist, he steered us both to Mr. Lee. A profusion of apologies were on the tip of my tongue, but before I could give voice to them, Dan pulled out a wad of cash, handed it over, thanked the officiant for his time, said nothing to Steven, and led the two of us out of the room.
Keeping me tucked to his side, he retrieved his phone, unlocked it, typed something, then shoved it back in his pocket as we walked past the waiting area, the receptionist, metal detector and bag check, the line of people waiting to get in, and through the front door.
He paused on the steps, craning his neck as though searching for something, or someone. Presumably finding what he sought, Dan guided me down the steps and toward a waiting SUV.
The squeal of exhilaration repeated in my head. I hadn’t caught up with, or reconciled, or otherwise successfully moved beyond the kiss.
What did it mean?
That’s easy. He’s into you.
But, what did it mean for the future? And the past?
That left me to sort through all my previous ideas and potential misconceptions about Daniel O’Malley, which had me blurting, “Polyamory?”
He glanced at me as he opened the door to the SUV, giving me his enigmatic smile. “I have an aunt.”
“An aunt?”
He placed his hand on my lower back, precariously close to my bottom as I slid into the back seat. “She’s in the lifestyle. Seems happy.”
Dazed, I scooted to the other side of the bench, allowing Dan plenty of room as he followed me in. Once he closed the door, he looked at me.
I looked at him.
His eyes dropped to my mouth, darkened, and smoldered. That’s right, they freaking smoldered. I’d never had someone smolder in my general direction, or if I had, I hadn’t realized it. But a Dan smolder was impossible to miss and it made my insides feel hot and heavy. It also made me want to climb on his lap and kiss his face off. Based on his smolder, I doubted he’d stop me.
And all of this was very confusing.
How did we get here?
“Where to?” Stan asked from the driver’s seat, breaking my trance and reminding me that we weren’t alone.
“My place.” Dan’s eyes were still on my lips.
My heart twisted—a pang, stretching and flexing—and then began to race.
“Your place?” I glanced between Dan and the back of Stan’s head. “Wait. No. Wait.”
Stan, who’d just flipped on his blinker, flipped it off. “Wait?”
Dan lifted an eyebrow at me. “Wait?”
“Yes. Wait. I need to—I need to think.”
“Okay.” Dan turned to the control console and pressed the button to lift the privacy window.
“No, wait.” I reached over him, knocking his hand out of the way to halt the window’s upward progress.
My position, reaching over his lap, my body pressed to his, our mouths inches apart, registered gradually. Heat spread up my neck. His eyes darkened to almost black.
Smolder.
“Kat.” My name sounded like a purr. “What are you doing?”
“I need a minute.”
“Let me raise the window.” His voice was low again, like he was telling me a dirty secret, and shaded with something else that felt hazardous, but also full of promise. Hazardous promise. Dirty secret.
“No.” I shook my head quickly, my mouth watering for some reason. “I need to think.”
“That’s why I’m going to raise the window.” He titled his head toward the front of the car and in doing so he brought our mouths closer.
You should kiss him, my heart advocated, and soon the recommendation became a chant, Kiss him, kiss him, kiss him.
Holding my gaze, Dan slid his hand atop mine and pressed the button, my heart accelerating further, so the chant sounded more like kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!
I turned my fingers and caught his, stopping the window once again. “I mean,” I whispered, “I meant, I need a minute where we—you and I—aren’t alone.”
His face did this strange and completely adorable thing. First, his eyebrows pulled together as though to frown, but then his mouth hitched as though to smile, and his eyelids drooped as though to increase the smolder. He licked his lips, drawing the bottom one into his mouth, sucking it. Biting it.
That wasn’t adorable. That was indecent. I loved it.
I held my breath while engaging in an internal brawl between myself and myself.
Perhaps I should just let him close the window. What was the worst that could happen? Likely, I’d end up in his lap, straddling him, and maybe we’d have sex in the back seat. That sounded freaking amazing.
Yes. Yes. Do that.
Except.
Except.
Except, what if I couldn’t? What if we started and I froze?