shouldn’t be that soft. Can you answer me that?”
I shake my head, his hand coming up to cup my cheek. “Some things have no answer.”
“Exactly.”
I feel the faint scarring on the inside of his palm. Taking his hand in both of mine, I turn it gently palm-side up, looking at the faint raised marks.
Nick doesn’t say anything.
“How did you get these scars?” I ask the question lightly, like the answer isn’t important. Like I haven’t been curious for eight years straight.
Nick’s hand curls in mine. “It was a long time ago.”
“I’m sorry for asking. I know you don’t want to talk about… anything relating to yourself, really. But I figured, you saw me looking and it was probably clear that I wondered, and it felt ruder to not ask when you already know I’m thinking about it. You know?”
A faint curl to his lip. Damn man for smiling so rarely that when he does, it completely takes my breath away. “You don’t talk this way to everyone.”
“I don’t?”
“Oh, you’re forward with most people, I’ll give you that. And chatty and breezy and all that. But this nervous sort of rambling? Only with me.”
I put his hand back in my hair and, obediently, he runs his fingers through it. It buys me time, but only a little. We’re closer to some truths that would be better left untouched.
“Perhaps I’m more nervous with you.”
His hand stops only for a moment, before it continues its slow, sensual movement. “I see.”
That’s all he says. I focus on the buttons of his shirt instead, undoing them one at a time, rewarded by the sight of his chest. “Don’t worry,” I say. “I’m getting more and more used to you each time.”
“And that’s a good thing?”
I force lightness into my voice. “Isn’t it? Where do you see this going, Nick?”
His hands continue down to grip my waist tightly. Despite the strong hold, I feel like I’m floating, waiting for the answer, for the words I know will come. Have I made myself too vulnerable? I know he’s not a man I’ll get to keep.
“I have no idea,” he says finally. The bleakness in his voice brings out my own.
“Me neither,” I murmur. “The only thing we know for certain is that it’s supposed to stay a secret.”
“Oh, yes.” Nick’s hands brace on either side of my waist. “And that we still have a lot of practicing to do.”
I roll my hips over the clear evidence of what we need to practice on, and he groans. “Don’t. I already said—we have to leave soon, you’re sore, and there’s not nearly enough time for a proper training session.”
“I know.” I press my lips to his cheek. He’s not a man to easily accept tenderness, and now that he is, I’m having a very hard to time tearing myself away. “Help me choose a dress?”
“No,” he says. “If I have to watch you zip and unzip, there is no way you’re coming out of your closet unravished.”
“Fine,” I grumble. “Be that way.” But I’m smiling at him the entire way back into my closet. The black, silken dress I’d picked out is draped over the back of a chair, the heels I’d chosen waiting next to them. The ridiculous grin on my face refuses to fade.
Yes, the infatuation is real, all right.
“Tell me something!” I call.
“What?”
I wiggle my hips to get into the dress. “What was your favorite subject in school?”
“No more twenty questions!”
“That’s the last question.” I lie, slipping my feet into the nude heels. One last look in the mirror tells me I’ve chosen correctly. The dress had been an expensive purchase, but it’s made for occasions like this. Long and with an asymmetrical bodice, narrow in the waist before billowing out around my legs. My hair is half-up, half-down, blonde ringlets falling over the one bare shoulder.
“Fine.” His voice is closer, teasing now. “Recess.”
“That’s not a subject. Can you do up my zipper?”
Nick appears in the door to my closet and motions for me to turn around. “Math, then.”
“Math? That was my least favorite.”
“I’m not surprised.” His hands skate down my waist to pull me close, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “You look gorgeous. Let’s go.”
“I hate that we have to take two cars,” I say. The idea of the two of us walking in together, my arm on his, a pair… “Twice the environmental impact, you know.”
Nick doesn’t seem fazed by my words. His voice grows hard instead, and my vain