Chapter 14

Friday, December 15 th

Keaton

"You got off easy."

"Easy?" he repeated incredulously. "Are you kidding me? Have you ever been interrogated by a ten-year-old?"

"I have, actually." Lucy smiled at him over her wine glass. "And she only suggested you needed fashion advice."

Keaton laughed and shook his head. Alyssa had texted him just before he left to pick Lucy up. Ruby had demanded yet again that he send pictures of himself dressed up. Keaton had relented and sent a quick selfie for Ruby, but he had drawn the line at getting a picture of himself with Lucy.

"And, also," Lucy tipped her head as she continued, "my sister and my eighteen-year-old daughter were quote helping me get dressed." She wiggled her fingers in the air when she said quote .

Keaton thought he detected a little pink in her cheeks. The possible reasons for her to blush at the moment made his heart stir a bit. Made his dick jump to alert, too, but he silently commanded it to stand down. Tonight would be a nice dinner. Maybe a kiss or two. As much as he wanted more—for instance, he was dying to know what she had on under the dress—Keaton had told himself he was not going to rush anything with Lucy.

"I'm dying to know," he admitted. "But I won't push."

Her smile told him whatever he was imagining, the truth was a hundred times better.

"Dinner was delicious."

Probably wise to steer their conversation away from the clothing items that she may or may not have had her sister and daughter's help with, but Keaton hated to crash back down to earth already. Though, yes, dinner was delicious. Keaton had enjoyed his tuna steak, though maybe not as much as he had enjoyed watching Lucy eat her scallops and risotto. Sipping her wine. Tonight, with dinner, they shared a bottle of chardonnay. Wasn't something he would care to drink all the time, unless he was drinking it from her lips or her belly. And yet, it was good, and it had paired well with the seafood.

"Are you ready to call it a night?"

Lucy had been eyeing the bar, but at his gruff voice, at what admittedly sounded like a suggestive question, she jerked her gaze back to him.

"What do you have in mind?" She quirked an eyebrow at him.

Keaton smiled and let a heavy, sexy silence grow between them before finally answering, "Spade."

"Yeah?" She pressed her lips together. "Clubbing? Ruby says you can't dance."

"I don't whip or nay-nay," he answered, "And I don't wobble. But I know how to hold a woman." Her eyes sparked with desire. "On the dance floor."

"I would love that," she answered with a nod. "But I'd kind of like to see you whip and nay-nay."

He laughed as he pulled his credit card from his wallet and put it in the leather folder with the dinner check.

"No, you wouldn't."

"I have a confession to make." She spoke so softly, Keaton wasn't sure he heard her right. But the look on her face was still flirty, still suggestive. Whatever she was about to say, Keaton didn't think he would mind it a bit.

"Okay." He nodded. "Sounds like it might be a good one."

She laughed but turned her head away when their waiter approached the table for the check and Keaton's card.

"Does it have anything to do with what you might be wearing under that dress?"

Lucy licked her lips and shook her head, but her eyes were bright with amusement. Happiness. Keaton was certain the woman was made for him. He loved everything about her.

All the more reason not to screw things up.

"Callie," she smacked her lips together, "let me know I don't have to come home tonight."

Fuck if he could control the raging hard-on her words, the implication, created. Eyes locked with hers, he simply reached over the table and caressed the back of her hand with his fingertips.

When the waiter returned with his copy of the check, Keaton tucked his credit card away, stood, and pulled Lucy's chair back for her. She had worn a coat tonight, thankfully, but she had chosen to check it when they arrived at The Harbourview. Keaton's dick still wanted to play cowboy and pitch a tent in his trousers as he helped her shrug the long camel-colored wool coat over her shoulders.

They held hands as they left the restaurant and headed for his truck.

"I'm sorry you have to ride around in this old truck," he told her as they reached it. "You deserve a limousine."

"Nah." She shook her head. "No need for that."

She was in his arms before he knew either of them had moved. Her hands smoothed over his sport coat and into the back of his hair, her lips hungry over his. Keaton returned the kiss with the same greed, if not more. Pressed as tight as she was to him, there was no way she could mistake his arousal for anything other than what it was.

"I want that," she whispered as she drew back.

"What?"

"To not go home."

Breathless, he nodded. "Me, too?—"

"But." She smoothed her fingers over his lips. "Not yet. I want…"

"What? What do you want?"

"To savor this." She looked at him hopefully. "Us."

Incongruously, his brain agreed with her. But his body damn near shattered he was so hard.

"Lucy, I want this to matter."

Too old to play games, he decided it best to throw it out now. That he intended, he wanted , to build something with her. Not burn up the sheets and each other and walk away with nothing but ashes left between them.

Her smile warmed him in the cold parking lot; snowflakes drifted slowly around them.

"I do, too."

"I still want to dance with you." He nipped at her lower lip before pressing his forehead to hers.

"I wanna feel your arms around me," she agreed. "And I promise not to tell Ruby."

"No, no. You have to tell her I can dance," he argued.

Lucy slapped her hand playfully against his chest. "Well, first you have to show me that you can."

Keaton unlocked the truck and pulled the door open. He had helped her into the cab of the truck at her house, parked in her driveway, where her daughter could possibly have been watching them. Here, there was no one around.

"Oh!" She laughed as he scooped her up, smoothing a hand over her sweet little bottom as he placed her in the passenger seat. "See? I do like your truck."

Laughing with her, he swung the door closed and headed around to the driver's side, ready to wrap his arms around Lucy Holliday and slow dance until dawn.