Kissing her head, I murmured, “I dream about you sometimes…about what it would have been like if Denny hadn’t come back, if you were mine. Holding your hand, walking into the bar with you on my arm…not having to hide anything anymore. Telling the world that I love you.”
Smiling, she looked up at me. “You mentioned that you dreamed about me once. You never said about what though.” She kissed my cheek, then added, “I dream about you too sometimes.”
“Really?” That surprised me, and made me really happy. I’d kind of thought that I slipped her mind the moment I was out of her sight. “Huh, we’re kind of pathetic, aren’t we?”
I laughed as I considered all the stolen moments we’d had with each other in our minds. What a life dream-Kellan and dream-Kiera must have already had together. “And what are your dreams about?”
She giggled with embarrassment, her cheeks flushed. “Honestly, I mostly dream about sleeping with you.”
The look on her face when she spoke about sex was so damn cute, I could barely restrain myself from leaning down and sucking on her plump lip. I let out a much-needed laugh. Of the two of us, Kiera was undoubtedly the innocent one, yet she’d been having the erotic dreams, while mine had generally been on the more romantic side.
Amused, Kiera laughed with me. Grabbing her hand, I laced our fingers together. “God…is that all I am to you?” I asked.
Hoping she didn’t say yes, I watched as her laughter ended and her expression grew serious. “No…no, you’re so much more.”
My laughter dried up as the moment grew intense. “Good, because you mean everything to me.” What would I be without her? I didn’t want to fathom it.
Kiera clutched my hand tighter as she cuddled closer to me in the car. I wished we could stay for the rest of the night, but it was already late, and if Denny woke up and found us out here…there was just no good way to explain it. There wasn’t a good way to explain a lot of things between us. That slap in the bar, for instance. “What did you tell Denny?”
Kiera cringed, and I knew she didn’t want to talk about this. We needed to though. I needed to know the story if I was going to back it up. “That you slept with my sister and broke her heart. That’s believable. Everyone saw you at the bar together. Denny seemed to buy it.”
My heart sank as I felt the ticking of time closing in around us. She’d forgotten something very important in that lie…an aspect of it that we couldn’t control. “That won’t work, Kiera.”
Her voice sped up as she started panicking. “Yes, it will. I’ll talk to Anna; she’ll back me up. I’ve had to lie for her before. I won’t tell her why, of course…and Denny probably will never ask her about it anyway.”
She wasn’t seeing the problem I was seeing. Of course, she didn’t know the jackass like I knew the jackass, so it was easy for her to dismiss him. “I wasn’t thinking of your sister. That’s not why that won’t work.”
I saw the spark of despair in her eyes the second the realization hit her. “Oh God…Griffin.”
Nodding, I agreed with her summation. “Yeah…Griffin. He really does tell everyone.” Remembering her cluelessness, I smiled. “I don’t know how you managed to miss that. You’ve gotten good at tuning him out.” My humor left me as the problem loomed over us. “When Denny hears that it isn’t true…” He’ll know. We’ll change him…forever.
Kiera looked devastated that her lie wasn’t good enough. I kind of loved the fact that lying wasn’t one of her specialties. I was good enough for both of us, and I wasn’t proud of that fact. “What was I supposed to tell him, Kellan? I had to come up with something.” She stared at her hands. “You know, it’s possible that you both—”
I knew where she was going with that, and cut her off. “No. It’s not possible.” I smiled when she looked up at me. I would never touch Anna. She doesn’t hold a candle to you. Remembering Griffin’s explicit tales, I frowned. “Griffin is very…specific…about what he tells people. It’s not just that he slept with her. It’s that he slept with her, and I didn’t, like he stole her away from me or something. He’s got this weird competitive thing—”
“I’ve noticed that,” she said, her lips twisting in disgust. Sighing, she laid her head back on the seat. “God, I didn’t even think about that.”
My sigh matched hers. Damn Griffin. “I can’t guarantee you anything, but I could try talking to Griffin. Maybe get him to alter the story. I’ll probably have to threaten to kick him out of the band. Actually, I may just do that anyway.”