Chapter 10

“Let me take you on a date.”

Shiloh glanced up at Kellan, whom she had not spoken to since they’d arrived back home, and blinked, strictly to keep her eyeballs in her head. Otherwise, they might pop right out of place from sheer shock. “What?”

The man strolled right into the living room and plopped down next to her on the couch, shrinking it the way he did and taking up way more than his share of the oxygen.

Of course that had been happening without his help ever since The Kiss.

They hadn’t talked about it. Not one word since they’d come back from the police station. And they still weren’t talking about it. Instead, he’d moved on to Insanity Part B.

“You got me curious,” he said. “What you’re like on a date that could be so bad that you think someone needs to save me from you.”

Oh. Her cheeks heated as he not so kindly reminded her of what she’d blurted out after the Theresa incident. Really, she should have shut up and just rolled with the whole thing but no. She had to dissect every last bit and spill her guts and generally make a mess of things. “You’ll be disappointed. I’m lovely on a first date. It’s after that where I miss the boat.”

That was the part she had yet to crack. Apparently there was some unwritten rule that if you had a good time, you weren’t supposed to let on. That’s when the game started, the one she failed at because she had no clue how to play hard to get or whatever it was that made a man want to stick around. The practice run was not bearing much fruit in that regard.

“Great. Get dressed. Unless you intend to wear what you have on, in which case you look fantastic.”

He smiled and a thousand butterflies took flight in her stomach. “Right now? As in we’re going this minute?”

“You got other plans?”

“That’s irrelevant. You have to give a girl time to plan what to wear, do her hair.” Text all her friends to come over and calm her nerves. Make sure she didn’t wear something that made her look fat. Provide moral support. She’d never lived in a place like Vivo before but Carolina and Eliza could be there in literally two minutes and she needed a female perspective. Period. “Can’t we do it tomorrow night?”

“No.” The expression on his face bordered on mischievous as he leaned in as if imparting state secrets. “The whole point is to do things differently, right? None of this counts. We’re free to do exactly as we please. And I want to take you to dinner.”

The sheer spontaneity of it caught her in the throat. He wanted to spend time with her. And he didn’t want to wait. “I’ve never gone on an impromptu date before.”

“Really?” He glanced at her askance. “That’s probably part of the problem.”

“Is this date going to include free psychoanalysis? Because we’ll be there a while. Ivan doesn’t leave much room for a lot of spontaneity. He has a strict vetting process for the men I date.”

Kellan waved that off. “Ivan’s already vetted me, so all the more reason to take full advantage. I’m here, you’re here, we both have to eat so…”

Because she couldn’t leave it alone, she pointed a finger at him. “I’m paying, though.”

He just shook his head with an expression that was pure aren’t you cute. “Get ready. While you’re in there, practice saying thank you Kellan, which will come in handy after I pick up the check.”

Okay, she was just charmed enough with his impulsiveness to bite back her argument. She flew to her bedroom and tore through her closet.

What did you wear on a date that wasn’t a date with your fiancé who wasn’t a real fiancé but you planned to spend a couple of hours pretending he was while simultaneously pretending you felt nothing for him?

If there was a good answer to this very convoluted question, Shiloh wasn’t in the right frame of mind to find it. Actually, she might be a bit batty by this point because gah.

Her hands were shaking. She’d developed a serious case of the flutters for Kellan. Like, it was so bad, she almost couldn’t fathom how she’d eat around him. But she wasn’t missing her chance to see what it felt like to go on a date with a man who wanted to be with her.

Glancing at the clock, she threw on a swishy pink skirt that swirled around her ankles, tugged on a pair of darker pink tights and slid into an off-white sweater. It was November in Texas which meant you always checked the weather. It could be seventy or twenty pending the whims of Mother Nature and sometimes that changed hourly. Since she had no idea where they were going, this outfit would have to work.

“I’m ready,” she announced as she rushed into the living room where Kellan sat lounging on the couch as he waited for her.

Since he wasn’t the type to pass the time staring at his phone, he had nothing else to occupy his attention. Except her. His gaze latched onto hers instantly and heated just as fast.

“You look amazing,” he murmured and climbed to his feet. “I feel underdressed.”

As if. Her breath caught as she took in Date Night Kellan. Normally he wore a T-shirt and running pants of varying colors, which looked fantastic on him. She’d developed a preference for a man with muscles and she would have said there couldn’t possibly be an improvement on the ability to slide her gaze along the sinews that popped up on his arms as he moved.

She’d be wrong. He’d put on a pair of khakis and a simple blue button-down shirt, but he’d rolled the sleeves up to mid-forearm, leaving the majority of the bulk hidden, like a secret only she knew. The color complimented his eyes, turning them a breathtaking color, not quite blue, not quite green, one hundred percent devastating.

And she really should stop cataloguing him like a piece of meat. But holy cow did the man clean up. She cleared her throat. “You’ve been holding out on me. I didn’t think you owned any dress up clothes.”

“Surprise.”

The brief lift of his lips tugged an answering smile from her. “Do I get to find out where we’re going?”

He lifted a shoulder in the half-shrug that she’d come to expect. “Yep. As soon as we get there.”

Of course that was his answer. Date Night Kellan and Non-Committal Kellan were still the same person after all. “This is the best date I’ve ever been on.”

That made him laugh. “We haven’t even left yet.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m totally on board with the fact that none of this counts.” Which meant she could be herself as much as she wished and he’d still be coming home with her later. The whole concept made her downright giddy.

“That was your point,” he reminded her. “From earlier. I’m just rolling with it.”

Seemed like that would be a good theme for the night. No matter what happened, they’d both be rolling with it. She liked the idea of being spontaneous and intended to pay very close attention to Kellan’s particular brand of it.

Shiloh still managed to be a little surprised when they got to the ground floor and he didn’t head for the parking garage. Instead, he slid his hand into hers, lacing their fingers together tightly, and guided her toward the pathway that led to the public courtyard.

“We’re going to dinner here?” she guessed, which now felt like kind of a duh since that was one of the whole purposes of living and working in a small village that included restaurants. You didn’t have to go far to do much of anything.

“Butterfly Palace,” he confirmed. “It’s time to kick this fake engagement into high gear.”

She liked the sound of that. A lot. “Tell me. Does that include a few rounds of fake PDA?”

He squeezed her hand in response. “Except there’s no way to fake that. So I’m going to shower you with a lot of actual public affection.”

The texture in his voice made her shiver. It wasn’t real. Kellan’s touch shouldn’t affect her so much. And neither should the promise of future touching, but telling herself that didn’t make either one stop doing delicious things to her.

Maybe it was the sheer bliss of knowing that even if they ran into Ivan, he’d already blessed this union, such as it was, and there were exactly zero expectations for the night. Anything could happen.

They passed Mrs. Horowitz, who was walking her dog Butch, but everyone understood that it was an excuse she used to either spread gossip or pick up new tidbits for her rounds. As she registered that Kellan and Shiloh were holding hands, she gave them both a knowing smile, which meant that she’d either heard about their earlier kiss or witnessed it herself.

“It’s so wonderful to see young people in love,” she said with a little lilt on the end that almost turned it into a question, as if she wanted some corroboration or a juicy soundbite to repeat later.

“Hi, Mrs. Horowitz,” Kellan said. “Shiloh and I have known each other a long time, so it took us a while. But here we are. Happy together.”

He’d said something similar to the ex. That Shiloh was his friend’s sister as if she’d been right there all along but he’d never noticed her. Wouldn’t that be a nice story, if it had a drop of truth? Regardless, as a fake cover for how fast this engagement had happened, it made a lot of sense.

“I was just waiting for him to realize I’ve grown up,” she threw in, just to be sure the groundwork was well laid, particular so Mrs. Horowitz would repeat it. “And we have my brother’s blessing, so it all fell together perfectly.”

Which made the fact that it was all fake even more of a shame.

Keeping a firm grip on her hand, Kellan swept Shiloh past Mrs. Horowitz with flair, much like he had during the Sergio incident. Either he had a secret history as a dancer or he had a lot of practice maneuvering while attached to a woman. Probably the latter.

She wouldn’t let it put a damper on things though. Of course Kellan had girlfriends in his rearview mirror. He was an extremely good-looking man, built like a dream, and owned his own business. Plus he had a chivalrous streak that she could not get over. What wasn’t to like?

The fact that he wasn’t hers. Not for real. This was all supposed to be practice for some nebulous real thing that would happen later. Why was it so hard to remember that?

Butterfly Palace was abnormally crowded for a Friday night, which was great news for the couple who’d emigrated from Thailand to open the restaurant. Not so great news for Shiloh, who wanted to sit at a table and catch her breath while Kellan was not touching her.

“Thirty minutes,” the somewhat harried hostess informed them as she noted their names with dry erase marker on the glass-covered waitlist.

Kellan nodded and pulled Shiloh into a corner, the only empty spot in the packed vestibule. The mass of humanity pressed against her as the door opened to admit more people, almost knocking her off her feet. Instantly, Kellan swung her around so she was in the corner, his body blocking the tide. He didn’t so much as budge a millimeter as the crowd milled past him.

Oh, my. She could feel his heat as if everything between them had melted away. Then he braced an arm on the wall next to her head, leaning in to close the small gap there’d been in the first place. Her lungs constricted involuntarily and her knees might be in danger of buckling.

“Sorry,” he murmured in her ear, his breath sweeping across her earlobe like a caress. “I didn’t know it would be this busy. We can go somewhere else if you want.”

And lose an excuse to stand like this with him? No, thanks. “This is fine. It’s good for us to be seen together.”

“That is true. Everyone we know will hear about this by tomorrow.”

The rumble of his voice rattled her insides like an earthquake, but the good kind. If such a thing existed and probably did not. Earthquakes usually came with lots of destruction and mayhem and tsunamis sometimes. Like the one beneath her skin, threatening to swamp her with wave after crashing wave of Kellan.

“I like Thai food anyway,” she said, and oops, she’d accidently grazed his ear with her lips. But instead of jerking away, he kind of leaned into it as if he wouldn’t mind a repeat.

“What else do you like?”

His own lips got friendly with her ear.

I like the tingly way my skin feels right now. I like the interesting peaks and valleys of your arms. I like that you’re always in the next room.

“Unicorns,” she blurted out for goodness knew what reason. Well, she knew the reason—he’d gotten her all hot and bothered and she’d forgotten for a moment that men didn’t really want to know about that kind of thing.

If she’d been on her game, she’d have said sports cars. Or golf. Something that would make his eyes light up instead of dim in boredom.

But she’d started out this evening intending to be herself in all her glory. Roll with it. What was he going to do if she decided to talk about girl stuff for the entire evening, call off the date? “I like unicorns. They’re horses, but magic. My dad gave me a sparkly painted unicorn paperweight for my fifth birthday, and I loved it so much that he turned it into a tradition. He’d hunt high and low for a new unicorn to give me every year. Sometimes they’d be stuffed, and the year I turned ten, he gave me earrings.”

“Those were the last unicorns you got from him,” Kellan said as a statement instead of a question because of course he knew how old she’d been when he died. “Why don’t you ever wear them?”

She swallowed. “Because I don’t want anything to happen to them. What if I lost one? I’d never forgive myself.”

Instead of telling her how silly that was, he just smiled. Or at least she imagined that she could feel his lips turning up against her ear. “That’s the same reason I don’t wear my shells.”

“Now you’re just making fun of me,” she said without any malice.

“I’m not. I love that you hang on to things. I never have. It easier to pick up and go if you don’t have a lot of stuff. But that means that everything in the new place is the same generic junk as the last place.”

His voice spiked through her stomach as she registered that he might have just told her the most honest thing about himself she’d ever heard. And it made her almost as sad as it made her honored that he’d share. “I’ll buy you a unicorn.”

And that was the absolute best thing she could have said, apparently. He laughed and the sound of it curled up inside her like a swirl of warm caramel. But then he slid a palm to her jaw, lifting her face so he could pierce her with his hazel eyes.

She might have made a sound like meep. Or that could have been in her head only. Hard to tell when her senses scattered as if torn apart by a strong Texas wind.

“Don’t look now,” he murmured without taking his gaze off of her. “But our slimy friend just came into view. We better make sure he gets a good eyeful.”

This was not the time to point out that he’d had his head buried in her hair for the last ten minutes at least, and thus would have had a very difficult time picking out a clown from a lineup of nuns. The odds of him having seen Sergio were slim. She didn’t care. “Oh. Definitely.”

And with her consent in hand, he dropped his mouth to hers to swallow her whole.

She simply ceased to exist as he masterfully kissed her, dissolving her bones and turning her weightless, wheeling in space like a star yanked loose from its mooring in the sky.

She was being kissed on a first date by a man who’d told two different women today that he’d finally noticed her. Apparently she’d been lying to herself about all of this because none of it felt very fake in that moment.

Which meant she was on a collision course with her track record. She’d let herself pretend too long, too hard and liked it too much. This was exactly when it all started falling apart. She couldn’t let that happen for a thousand reasons—her safety, Ivan’s plan, Kellan’s chivalry. It wasn’t fair to him to be stuck with a woman who clung to him like glue, who made every encounter awkward long after he’d lost interest.

She had to push him away herself.