“She’s not going to goad me, no matter how painful it is to endure. The only thing I want to come of this is my complete ownership of my reactions, so at the end of the day, my job will be safe, along with my dignity.”

I watched her as we wound our way past workers against the stream and into the kitchen. “You’re no match for them.”

She tossed me a smile over her shoulder. “I know. I only have a second, what did you need me to sign off on?”

I snagged her hand, towing her into a dark inlet packed with racks that would be filled with food any minute.

Lila gasped, laughing as I pulled her into my chest, one arm around her waist like a vise, the other steering my hand to her face.

“Just this,” I said against her lips before I took them.

Too brief was the kiss, edged with the distance of her distraction. But still, she sighed happily when I let her lips go.

“You,” she started, “are truly the best distraction a girl could ever ask for.”

My heart flinched at the word, the one we brandished like cold steel to defend against the truth.

“I know.” I smiled down at her. “And tonight, when this is all over, I’m gonna distract you again. And again. And again.”

“I hope so,” she said before kissing me again, this time with heat that betrayed her agenda for the promise of me. When she leaned back, she asked, “Did you have a question for me? Or was that a lie too?”

“I did need you to sign something, just not with a pen.”

A chuckle, a fond slide of her hand from my neck to my chest. “What’s the question?”

Without warning, questions rose in my mind, commandeered my heart. Can we be more? Will you be mine? If I promise you something, will you do the same? If I fall in love with you, could you love me too?

But I flashed that smile again, brandished it as I did that cursed word. “Are you wearing panties?”

She laughed from deep in her belly, her teeth bright and perfect, framed by crimson lips. “Are you?” she countered.

“Never,” I answered, my hand moving to cup her ass, testing its weight and shape with my palm. “And I don’t have underwear on either.”

With a laugh and the swiftest of kisses, she backed away. And with a suggestive smile, she said, “Neither am I.”

Two steps, and she disappeared around the corner, leaving me panting in the dark.

And for new and happy reasons, I couldn’t wait for this night to end.

19

Heartless

LILA

The second Natasha’s guests began to arrive in earnest, the night got easier by half.