Chapter 4
“I wondered where you were.”
Shanna looked up from the newspaper and saw Kane standing there. Feeling a rush of pleasure with the sight of him, tall and gorgeous with a voice to match, she stiffened. It was after four. She hadn’t seen him all day.
His shoulders were broad in a light blue jean shirt, and his dark blue jeans fit him good, no stomach pushing the waistband too low. And she could see the outline of his package. A man who looked this good in jeans had to be worth something.
“I went up to the room. I thought you left,” he said.
“Did you miss me?” she teased.
He grinned. “Yes.”
A funny flutter down low and deep caught her off guard. Was he flirting with her? She stopped smiling when she realized she’d flirted first.
As he moved to the other side of the table, she got a glimpse of his fine ass. He sat across from her.
“Where’d you go?” she asked.
“To the office. It’s within walking distance.”
He’d gone to work on Christmas Eve, when the city was without electricity. “Just couldn’t resist, huh?”
“I didn’t get much done.”
“Kind of hard in the dark.”
The slight cock of his head and look of umbrage made her wonder if work was the only reason he’d gone.
“That was part of the distraction,” he said.
“There were others?” She was afraid she didn’t sound casual enough.
“Plenty.” Leaning back against his chair, he watched her the way a man does when he likes a woman a lot. That captivated look in his eyes.
She couldn’t help smiling. “Care to share any of them?”
“I better not.”
“That good, huh?”
“You have no idea.”
That almost made her ask him to tell her.
“That’s the real reason I left this morning.”
“Wow.” He was either really good at getting into a girl’s panties or just plain charming.
“Yeah.”
“Am I safe tonight?” Putting her elbows on the table, she folded her hands and put her chin on top, feeling like a flirty fifteen-year-old.
“As safe as you want to be.”
She laughed lightly. It was too good not to, especially when those green eyes took in her face as if she were a sculpture of a naked woman.
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
Yes. Almost. “No.” She wanted to.
“Fair enough. I picked up a few things on my way back here. How about you consider tonight our first date?”
“What did you pick up?”
“You’ll see. Later.” The left side of his mouth lifted and his eyes sent her a sexy message.
Oh, that tickled her insides. “Why can’t you tell me? Is it kinky?”
“Do you like kinky?”
“I have my boundaries.” She couldn’t believe she was playing along with this. And liking it.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Lifting her chin off her hands, she leaned back and just looked at him. His gaze flared like a windswept grass fire. She should be running from it. Instead, all she wanted to do was feel it envelop her.
Arguing from the entrance of the bar made her turn with Kane. A woman stood before a tall man with dark hair. He spoke angrily to her, but not loud enough for Shanna to discern what was being said over the other people in the bar. Though she could only see the woman’s back, she recognized her.
“Isn’t that your date from yesterday?” she asked, incredulous.
“Yeah.” He didn’t sound happy.
The man searched the bar.
“Must be the husband.” Was he looking for his wife’s date? “Does he know about you?”
Shanna watched the man spot Kane and start toward them.
“Looks like it.”
“Oh, boy,” Shanna said, getting worried. She didn’t want to be in the middle of a bar fight over a married date that Kane met online.
The woman marched after her husband, trying to take hold of his arm as he reached Shanna and Kane’s table.
Kane stood as the man came to a halt.
“What the hell are you doing here?” the man demanded.
Shanna watched Kane remain silent, as if allowing the man to answer his own question. City-wide blackout.
“I’m not stupid, mister. I know who you are. You’re the guy my wife’s been seeing. I recognize you from that online dating site.”
“Todd, stop this. I didn’t come here to see Kane,” Kane’s date said.
“Kane?” The angry husband could have drilled holes through his wife’s eyeballs with his look. “You say his name like you’ve said it many times.”
“I haven’t, I—”
“I always knew you were a tramp.”
The woman sucked in a breath of air. “That isn’t fair.”
The volume of voices lowered around them. Some of the people in the bar were beginning to notice the ruckus.
“Look,” Kane said, “I didn’t know your wife was here. She must have gotten her own room.”
“I did,” the woman said, tugging on her husband’s arm. “Come on, let’s go. Don’t make a scene, Todd. We can talk about this in my room.”
“You e-mailed him. I read them all.”
“Only to arrange a time and place to meet. We only met once.”
“You’re lying. And there was more in those e-mails than arranging a time and place to meet. You like him.”
“I only met her once,” Kane said. “But I wouldn’t have even done that if she’d have told me she was married.” He pinned the woman with a hard glare of disgust.
“I think you’ve been sneaking around with my wife,” the man said.
“I didn’t know she was married,” Kane repeated. “She didn’t tell me, and she lied in her profile. I would have never pursued her otherwise.”
Todd swung his gaze to Kane’s date.
“Todd, please. Stop this. Let’s go to my room,” she pleaded.
It was like a bad movie Shanna couldn’t stop watching. She was one of the background actresses, a prop, not noticeable enough to pay any attention to. Not that she wanted to be noticed right now. She’d like nothing more than to go to the room and snuggle with Scotch.
“Don’t you mean the same room you planned to bring him?” the husband shouted, the epitome of a man victimized by his ego.
The woman looked at Kane with big, round, revealing eyes. She had meant to bring Kane here.
“Oh my God,” her husband said, an appalled frown on his mouth and in his eyes.
“What did you expect?” the woman spat. “We haven’t had sex in weeks!”
“You slept with him?”
“No.”
The husband turned to Kane. “Unscrupulous swine!” He swung his fist. Kane didn’t move in time and was struck on his cheek.
He tried to catch his balance, but tripped over the foot of a man standing behind him and fell on his rear.
Shanna sprang to her feet and planted her palms on the husband’s chest, shoving as hard as she could. The man stumbled but didn’t move far. He turned his injured ego onto her.
“Bitch.”
Her jaw opened and she almost let her temper loose. But she caught the knee-jerk reaction in time.
Kane climbed to his feet. “I think you should both go.” He was bigger and taller than the other man. Had he been prepared for the punch, his date’s husband wouldn’t have stood a chance.
From the bar entrance, two security guards approached.
The husband saw them and faced Kane again. “This isn’t over. I’m not finished with you.”
Kane didn’t react. Just waited for the security guards to stop before them.
“Let’s go,” Kane’s date said, tugging her husband’s arm.
He relented, raising his hand to the security guards. “We’re going.” And then to Kane, “Don’t come near my wife again.�
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“He didn’t know, Todd. I went on Soulmate to find someone to have sex with, that’s all.”
“That’s all?”
“Come on, let’s go to my room.” She tugged on his arm again.
He didn’t budge. “I don’t want to go anywhere with you. Did you know I was going out of my mind worrying about you? When the airport closed, I couldn’t reach you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“And then you didn’t pick up our daughter. I had to leave work to go and get her.”
“Were is she? Where is our son?”
“They’re at my sister’s. Where I’m going.” He turned and started off.
“Wait!” She held on to his arm, trying to stop him. “What if you don’t make it?”
He shrugged her off him. “What do you care?”
“I do care.”
At the bar entrance, he stopped and faced her and they argued at a low volume. Finally his temper eased and they left together.
The volume of talking gradually increased in the bar. Distinguishable words meshed together as the throng conversed among pairs and groups.
Shanna turned to Kane, who rubbed his cheek. “Are you okay?”
“He’s lucky I didn’t see that coming.”
“Ok, Batman. You ready to go up to the room?”
He dropped his hand and smiled. “Yes.”
As it dawned on her how her question sounded, she pivoted and walked toward the elevators.
In the suite, Shanna held Scotch while she watched Kane go over to the bar. Putting Scotch down on the couch, she joined him there.
“Would you like a drink?” he asked.
“Sure. Whatever you’re having.”
He poured martinis into two glasses and handed her one. Their gazes met and she couldn’t look away.
“I’m starting to see why you don’t like the online thing.”
She smiled and reached up to hold his chin with her fingers and thumb, turning his head aside so she could better see the reddened skin of his cheek. No blood.
“He can’t hit worth a darn.”
Kane chuckled and she lowered her hand, taking a sip of her martini.
“You never answered my question.”
“What question was that?”
“Are you going to consider tonight our first date?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“On what you have planned.”
He grinned. “All those times I came into Bean Me, I wondered what it’d be like if it was you sitting across from me.”
“You did not.” Did he? She’d seen firsthand what kind of ladies’ man he was. While he was charm incarnate, she still didn’t trust his intentions.
“You never seemed interested.”
“You were with other women.” A lot of them. He was too hard to please. She’d be an idiot to fall for him. But maybe she had one more risk left.
“There is that.”
“What would you have done if I’d have shown interest?”
“Probably come in by myself.” He sipped his drink while his gaze took a leisurely trip down her chest and returned to her eyes.
“And then what? Ask me out on a date?”
“Probably.”
Just probably? “And then what?”
“Ask you out on a second date.”
“You don’t know that. You’ve never gone out with me.”
“I’ve been with you for more than twenty-four hours. I’d have asked you.”
He sure knew how to feed her ego. But he was right. Instead of getting sick of each other, they seemed to keep getting closer.
She sipped her drink and let herself feel the pleasure it gave her to look into his incredible eyes. The energy between them hummed.
“What made you decide to open a coffee shop?” he asked, and she was relieved to move on to another topic.
He sipped his martini and she was distracted watching his lips.
“I was an engineer at Boeing. I got tired of the corporate environment.”
“What’d you do for Boeing?”
“I was a test engineer. I did a lot of requirements and specifications and ran tests on aerospace products, that kind of thing.”
“Sounds like you gave up a good job.”
“I wasn’t happy. I wanted to work for myself, so I used my 401K to get Bean Me going.” Reminded of her rent situation, she lowered her eyes and sipped her drink. She’d been doing fine until her rent was raised. It wouldn’t happen overnight, but unless business picked up or she raised her prices, she’d gradually go under. There were plenty of other coffee shops, and if she raised her prices, she’d price herself right out of the market.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
Looking up, she met his smiling eyes. “So it’s dinner you have planned.”
“For our date. When are you going to admit that’s what’s happening here?”
“All right. It’s a date. But don’t get any fresh ideas.”
With a cagey grin, he moved around her and bent to open the refrigerator.
What was she getting herself into?
He brought out a container of sushi.
Shanna’s stomach growled. “How did you get that?”
“From a restaurant I frequent. I know the owner.” Putting the container down on the counter, he opened a smaller one of soy sauce.
“Must be nice to have people do what you want all the time.” She picked up a salmon roll and dipped it in the sauce.
“He’s a friend of mine.”
She chewed the roll. “Mmm.”
He ate one, too, watching her mouth as she chewed another one. She looked at his mouth, too. There went that energy again. She met his green eyes and once again let herself feel the attraction mixing.
“What’s the main course?” she asked, getting a little breathless.
“Tempura. Cold, but good.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had Japanese on Christmas Eve before.” And she had to say, it wasn’t disappointing. She hadn’t expected much with the city powerless and the hotel running low on food. She glanced around the fancy suite. “All that’s missing is a Christmas tree.”
He gestured with the nod of his head toward the wall across from the floral sofa. “There’s a wreath.”
There was, a big one with red bulbs and berries. There was a candle nestled in a bed of greenery on the table, too.
Kane walked over to the table. Putting his drink down, he lit a lighter and set the candle ablaze. Then he grinned her way.
“What are you doing?” she asked, not wanting to admit she liked it.
“This is different than any other date I’ve ever been on.” He walked toward her, more like a stroll, a sexy one. She resisted the urge to back up as he came to a stop in front of her.
“What’s different about it?”
He exaggerated a shrug. “Oh, I don’t know. A city-wide blackout. We’re in a hotel suite instead of a coffee shop.”
“Yes, that does make it a little different.”
“You make it different, too.” He was no longer being playful. He was serious.
“Think you’re gonna get lucky tonight?” She had to keep this light. She wasn’t ready to trust him.
“I’m already lucky. Stranded with a beautiful woman, having a romantic dinner for two on Christmas Eve. Who would’ve thought?”
“Not me.” She sipped her drink again.
“You think all I’m after is sex?”
She didn’t know what to think. He hadn’t seemed interested in only sex with his date yesterday.
“It isn’t. I’ve been looking a long time for a woman I enjoy talking to. We don’t seem to be lacking in that area.”
It was easy to talk to him, and there was a wonderful heat to their chemistry. He seemed to understand what she was thinking and feeling without saying much.
“You’re just having a hard time accepting it. Because you saw me with so many women.”
“I guess I was going after it a little too aggressively.”
“What…the perfect wife?”
“Perfect for me.”
“And your career. I don’t want a man who puts his career before me.”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
“Wouldn’t you?”
Wrapping his fingers around her martini glass above her hand, he took it from her. Her heart beat faster as she watched him put it on the table with his and then return to her.
“I thought that’s the kind of woman I needed,” he said. “It wasn’t until I met you that I realized what a mistake that would be.”
“Are you saying you’d change your work schedule for the right woman?”
“Yes. I’d put her first.”
Oh, this was getting dangerously good. Dare she dream of being the right woman for him?
He stepped closer, sending her pulse flying.
“I’m curious,” he said.
“Uh-oh.”
He chuckled. “That guy you were with for…what did you say? Ten years?”
“Yeah.”
“You ended it, right?”
“Yes.” Why was he bringing this up now?
“So it can’t be him that made you standoffish.”
“I’m not—”
“And the online dates,” he interrupted. “Most of them were just one or two dates, right?”
“Some of them lasted longer.”
“Did you love any of them?”
“No! Of course not.”
He smiled and she realized what she’d given away. Her defensiveness spoke loudest of all.
“You loved the last one you were with.”
No, she hadn’t. “I thought I did.”
“What are you so afraid of, Shanna Toole?” he asked.
Falling in love with the wrong man. But she couldn’t say it to him. Uncomfortable, she stepped back and turned, passing a sleeping Scotch on the couch on her way to the window. The city was dark under a starlit sky.
She heard him move to stand behind her, stirring her senses and building heat low in her abdomen.
“Don’t be afraid of me, Shanna.” His hands glided up her arm and stopped near her shoulders. “How can I hurt you when I feel the same as you?”
Kiss Me on Christmas Page 5