After their conversation, she felt better about the first of those. In fact, she almost felt like something had shifted between them. Maybe finally, after all these years, he’d truly realized she was an adult, a woman. Their near miss of a kiss proved he desired her, at least on some level. But the third? Well, the fact that the kiss hadn’t happened said it all.
Why did he find her so easy to resist? As much as she appreciated the honesty, she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit to the ball of hurt feelings rolling around inside her chest.
Kady opened up a new email window and hammered out a thank-you message to Colonel Jepsen and his team. She smirked to herself as she typed the words “Thank you.” Colton was so not winning that bet. She’d superglue her lips together before she let that happen.
“What did that keyboard ever do to you?” Colton asked from across the room.
Kady flinched and looked up to find him leaning against the wall outside the bathroom door like he’d been watching her. Heat bloomed over her skin. How long had he been there? And why was he looking at her?
Maybe for the same reason he almost kissed you?
Ugh. Men are so freaking confusing. Especially that one.
“Uh, what are you talking about?” she said, gentling her keystrokes.
He grinned and shook his head. “Any chance you’re getting hungry?”
Kady smiled. “I’ve been hungry since our driver mentioned the milk shakes.”
“Wanna walk over and get some dinner?” Colton strolled toward the table.
“Yeah, sounds good.” She hit send on her message, closed her laptop, and fished her phone charger out of her computer case on the floor. “And I’m even going to be a rebel and leave my phone here while it charges.”
“Living on the edge,” Colton said as he tugged on his shoes.
“That’s me all right.” Kady nudged her heels until they sat upright and stepped into them. The leather lining inside them was ice-cold from how wet they still were. Colton opened the door, letting in a wave of humid June air. “You know, I sorta can’t believe we’re going back out in this again. It’s an actual monsoon.”
Colton grinned and nodded. “True, but there was a big golf umbrella lying on the floor in the motel’s office. I’ll ask if we can borrow it. That’ll help.”
She stepped onto the narrow sidewalk and paused while he double-checked that the door was locked. “You know,” she said over her shoulder as they made their way along the walkway, “if you just want to admit defeat on the whole me verbally expressing my gratitude thing”—she was careful not to use the actual words “thank you,” because Colton was totally a strict constructionist when it came to the terms of a bet—“you can just buy me dinner now. I even promise to go easy on your wallet. I’ll only order one milk shake and no dessert.”
“Ha, just keep walking, Dresco. The night is still young.”
Kady grinned. Well, if nothing else, at least their conversation now proved that their conversation from before hadn’t made things weird.
At the end of the sidewalk, they dashed into the office. He held the door for her, and she slammed her lips shut as the words “thank you” nearly fell off the tip of her tongue. He smirked, then followed her in. “Mind if we borrow your umbrella to go to the diner?” Colton asked the man behind the counter.
“Not at all,” the man said, dragging his gaze from his television program.
“Would you like us to bring you back anything?” Colton asked.
The old guy’s eyes went wide and focused squarely on Colton. “I’d be much obliged for a cup of black coffee.” He pulled out his wallet.
Colton waved him off. “Happy to. We shouldn’t be too long.”
“Thank ya, son.”
Colton ducked his head and retrieved the big, colorful umbrella from a bucket in the corner.
“Aw, look at you being all sweet,” Kady said under her breath as they paused at the door.
“Through and through, cupcake,” he said with a wink.
She rolled her eyes, even though sometimes it was actually true. “Also, take note, that is the only time tonight you’re going to hear those words.”
For a moment, he frowned, and then she saw the lightbulb go on over his head. The old man had thanked him. “Keep talking smack and your loss is going to be that much more humiliating.” He followed her out onto the sidewalk.
Kady looked at the kiddie-pool-size puddles covering every part of the parking lot’s surface and stepped out of her heels. “I’ll be more stable on bare feet,” she said, her fingers hooked around the backs of the shoes.
“Don’t know how much good this umbrella is going to do us,” Colton said. “But it’s better than nothing. Ready?”
Kady nodded.
The heat of Colton’s arm slipped around her shoulders, sending a jolting thrill through her body. “Let’s make a run for it,” he said, raising the umbrella over them. “Stay close.”
Chapter Four
A little over an hour later, she and Colton had bellies full of burgers, fries, and Oreo cookie milk shakes and had delivered George, as he finally introduced himself, his coffee, as promised. The food had been good, the milk shake amazing, and their dinner conversation easy and flowing. And she’d caught herself twice before slipping and thanking him—once when he’d passed her the ketchup and again when he’d let her finish the last of his shake. They’d talked shop most of the time—sharing industry gossip and experiences with new software, speculating on the identity of a new hacker trying to make a name for himself, and other equally geektastic topics. Exactly the stuff she loved.
Kady didn’t remember a time when she wasn’t fascinated by computers, not just what they could do, but how they actually operated. She could still hear her mother’s voice echoing off the walls of the family office totally flabbergasted that a nine-year-old Kady had disassembled the desktop PC. When Kady managed to reassemble the machine so that it worked good as new, her father had found her some science and computer summer camps to apply to. By the time she’d turned ten, she’d known exactly what she wanted to do with her life.
She really loved that Colton got that about her. And he always had. Even when they’d bickered or harassed each other when they’d been younger, he’d always respected her interest and her ability. When they talked computers, he’d never cared that she was something of a nerd, nor did her being a girl seem to bother him.
Add all that together with the fact that the incredibly sexy man with whom she now found herself stranded had been an absolutely beautiful boy, and it was no surprise at all how hard she’d crushed on him.
The door to their room was barely closed behind her when Colton flopped on the bed and rubbed his stomach. “If I didn’t think there was a serious chance of drowning out there, I’d go for a run.”
Kady dropped her heels to the floor and her bare feet froze right where she stood on the industrial beige carpet. She barely heard his words because of the amount of brain capacity that had diverted to the visual he presented. One part of her brain—the biggest part, if she was going to be honest—focused on the fact that Colton’s long, lean body looked so damn amazing all sprawled out on the bed that Kady wanted to pounce on him, especially since the way his left leg hung off the edge pulled his dress pants tighter across his groin, showing off the subtle but unmistakable outline of his cock. But another part—small but vocal—saw Colton lying on the bed and remembered that the room had only the one, and that they were going to have to share it.
As in, him and her, together, in that bed.
As in, her and the only man ever to give her an orgasm, together, in that bed.
Kady’s stomach flipped as butterflies whipped through her middle. “Um, should we see if there’s a movie on? Or something?”
“Why not?” Colton said, sitting up and raking his fingers through the chocolate brown of his hair. “I’m gonna get comfortable first, though.”
Her gaze dragged to his dress shir
t, still hanging on the back of one of the chairs. That was all she had for getting comfortable herself. “Yeah, might as well.”
Colton grabbed a few things from his laptop bag and closed himself in the bathroom. When he came out a few minutes later, Kady couldn’t help but gape.
“When did you get glasses?” she asked, knowing she was gawking at him but unable to help herself. Because as sexy as he’d been laid out on the bed, he was just as sexy wearing those dark frames. Damn, smart was sexy. And right now, Colton Brooks looked like a freaking genius.