“Crap. You were right under my nose.”
Now, I actually laughed. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. You would have been seven when I left for college. It would have been even more inappropriate than four years ago when you started hitting on me.”
“Seven…” he echoed. He didn’t say anything else about it, but tension threaded through his body, tightening his fingers on mine.
“I still can’t believe you were there, so close for all my life,” he finally said. “Probably good you never came up. Ardith and Niles weren’t any better then than they are now.”
I didn’t even raise an eyebrow at him using their given names rather than honorific monikers. In the same situation, I wouldn’t want to either.
His thumb stroked back and forth over the back of my hand, and while we didn’t speak, the tension dissolved into a more comfortable silence.
“I’ll walk you to the staff door,” he said while we traveled up the long drive.
“You don’t—”
“No one will see, and it will be safer.”
“Safer? The crime rate in Cherish Cove is practically zero.”
“The reported crime rate,” he grated darkly. “Just humor me.”
“Okay,” I agreed, my voice shaky. Truly, I didn’t like traipsing around alone in the dark anyway. Having Mars beside me would be welcome.
He stopped the SUV far enough back from the garage to keep the motion detector’s lights from triggering. Shutting off the engine, he turned to me. He lifted our clasped fingers to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of my hand.
“Come out with me again tomorrow? I’m volunteering at the shelter again during the day, but… If you can sneak out, maybe we can go to the beach and dinner? Not on the Cherish Cove public beach. I know another place.”
I should say no. I’d had a nice time tonight, but there were a million reasons I shouldn’t see him again. But my lips? They didn’t listen.
“Yes. Yeah, that would be fun.”
He smiled wide, emoting happiness I rarely saw. “Perfect.”
Leaning forward, he wrapped his hand behind my neck and pulled me toward him. I closed my eyes, expecting a kiss. It didn’t come. His lips brushed my forehead then he hopped out of the car and ran to my side. When he left me at the staff door, minutes later, I was still bemused. And hungry for that kiss he hadn’t given me.
Just as well. I shouldn’t be seeing him anyway. Kisses would just complicate matters.
As would the date tomorrow. But I wasn’t backing out of that. And if he did try to press that lush mouth to mine? Yeah, I probably wouldn’t stop that either, because Mars made me weak. Weak and needy. A terrible combination for a girl who knew she had to say no.