We kiss more fiercely than we have yet, as though marking how significant this moment is. He places his hand on the small of my back and presses down firmly, squeezing my body against his. I moan as I loop my arms around his shoulders.
“Let’s go somewhere,” he says, breaking the kiss off but staying close.
“Where?” I murmur.
“Somewhere away from the city. Somewhere we can forget about all of this for a little while. Disappear with me, Kyra.”
I grab onto his shirt, digging my fingernails in. “Are you sure? There might be time to go back there and salvage the show.”
“I can’t,” he says firmly. “I can’t even pretend to be attracted to anyone else. It’s you, Kyra, only you, always you. I can’t… no, I won’t let the world think there’s another person who could take your place.”
“Then let’s go,” I say in a rush. “Take me somewhere, Kayden. Let’s forget about all of this.”
He opens the passenger side door and gestures inside.
I climb in quickly before I have a chance to doubt myself out of it. Before I let the voice in my head whisper harshly that I’m making a mistake by abandoning my job. Lisa is going to freak.
He drops into the driver’s seat and swipes his thumb along the pad, the engine purring to life.
“I bet they’re going crazy back there,” I murmur.
He smirks over at me. “Let them. You’re the only person I care about. Right now, Kyra, you’re all that exists.”
Chapter Nineteen
Kayden
“You’ve put me in one hell of a position here, Kayden.”
Jack’s voice comes out through the speakers as I drive Kyra and me toward the countryside, the twinkling lights of the cityscape receding behind us. Kyra sighs at Jack’s words, her hands twisting in her lap.
“You’re on speakerphone, Jack,” I tell him. “Kyra’s here.”
“Oh.” He pauses, and I can hear him smiling, despite the circumstances. “Hello, Kyra. It’s nice to meet you.”
“And you,” she says. “I’m sorry for all this, Jack. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”
“You don’t have to apologize,” Jack says, reminding me that, whatever else he is, he’s always going to be my friend first. “I won’t lie. It’s going to be a nightmare to explain all of this. But I know how much Kayden cares about you.”
“You do?” she murmurs.
“Yes.” He chuckles deeply. “Before he met you, I couldn’t imagine Kayden acting like this for anyone. I know how much you mean to him.”
“But the show…”
Jack sighs. “Yeah, the show. But it’s not your fault. It’s not his fault. You can’t help the way you feel.”
“Thank you for saying that, Jack.” I run a hand through my hair. “And sorry for leaving you with a shit storm. We’re driving out to the cabin. When I return tomorrow, we’ll figure out how to handle this.”
“I might have an idea,” Jack muses. “But we can talk about it tomorrow.”
“It’s fine. We can talk in front of Kyra. I trust her completely.”
He pauses. I can almost hear him chewing his lip.
“If you were to agree to return to the show—”
“No,” I say flatly. “I’m sorry, bro, but I can’t do that. I can’t let the world think I could ever want anyone else. Kyra is it for me, the woman I’m going to spend the rest of my life with.”
“And you feel the same, Kyra?” Jack asks.
“I do,” she says, voice shivering. “I know it probably seems crazy to you, but I feel exactly the same way he does. I want a future together so badly.”
Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, I reach across and wrap my other hand around hers. She clasps onto me tightly, as though she never wants to let go.
“Yeah, maybe a little.” Jack chuckles. “But it’s good to know that you’re both so crazy for each other.”
All three of us laugh, Kyra’s eyes meet mine briefly. There’s so much emotion in those captivating blues of hers, so much hope for the future, so much affection and shyness and sexiness, and a thousand other feelings all mixed together. I’ll never stop being fascinated by my woman.
“Anyway, you didn’t let me finish,” Jack says. “I was going to say if you were willing to return to the show—”
“But—”
“Just wait a sec, Kayden.”
I smirk at the fierce tone of his voice. That’s another reason Jack is so valuable as my right hand man. He’s never worried about interrupting me, as other employees sometimes are.
“Okay.”
“The whole point of this was to humanize you in the eyes of the public, to convince them that you’re not a – no offense – grumpy bastard. So if you agreed to go on the show and tell your story, talk about when you and Kyra first met, the instant, uh, affection you felt…”
I note the pause before he says affection, and I know intuitively he was going to say love. My lips twitch as though wanting to correct him.