from behind her shoulder, twisting to see what she had seen until he caught sight of her mother too. “Mother Renee?” he asked.
“Yes,” she squeaked. Her mother was with Mr. Tweed. Those two didn’t get along... except they really were getting along. The mayor leaned and her mom closed the gap between them. Who knew that St. Hallow’s Eve would be a time of romance for the Sawyer women? Her mom, of course, would claim she knew, but that was beside the point.
“Hey, remember when I said people talk a lot around here,” she whispered to Janson. “Let’s go!”
He studied her a moment, but strangely didn’t seem to mind as his gaze shot to Dwayne and Vin leaning up against the wall. He nodded briskly. Relief flooded through her when she realized that she actually only wanted Janson to herself, so she could get to know him... without an audience. She’d explain to Shawnii where she’d gone later.
Janson threw a fifty on the table and helped her out of his bench seat, letting her lead the way out since she knew the place better. Draping her mother’s jacket over her arm, she rushed through the packed crowd. Some of the faces she knew; others were tourists for the zombie crawl tomorrow. Scooby jumped over the bar and slid back to his seat with two fistfuls of peanuts. She froze. Janson ran into her before she reversed directions. She was running away from everyone tonight, it seemed. “We’re not going out that way?” he asked behind her.
“No, the side exit,” she explained through the loud crowd. He took her hand to steady her, and before she knew it, he was the one leading her. They stopped at the grand staircase where Janson stared up four flights. It was circular, going up and up, so that they saw every floor above them and then below to the ground floor, almost a dizzying sight.
“Let’s go up,” Janson said quickly. He glanced behind at his security, who were almost on them.
“We don’t have access,” she said.
“I’ll slip the workers a hundred to look the other way.”
Mollie laughed. She didn’t need his money. Everyone knew her. She could go where she wanted, though she didn’t particularly want to get caught going upstairs with a handsome stranger. She’d never live it down. “What’s up there?”
“I want to braid your hair when we get to the top,” he teased, and then his eyes grew serious. “C’mon, there’s a balcony. I need some air.” His bicep flexed as he clasped the knob of the railing. For a moment she could only imagine those muscular arms around her.
“Your first excuse was more believable,” she said, but gave in at his pleading look, following him up the stairs. “If we go out to the balcony, then you definitely have to braid my hair.”
He glanced back at his security detail again, who trailed them a few steps behind. She wondered why he couldn’t tell them to get lost if they were bothering him. She might have ulterior motives for wanting to be alone with him, too. They reached the next floor. As they neared the doors to the balcony, she touched his arm. She’d love nothing more than for him to warm her up again, but this dashing around to find a place a little more private felt ridiculous. “Hey, maybe we can tell your security to pull back a little.”
His mesmerizing hazel eyes looked almost green as his hands slid around her waist. “Go with this for a second, Red.” His mouth found hers. She jerked in surprise. It actually took her a moment to realize they were kissing. The man was too good at it. He was warm and, oh, so strong. He held her like she was a treasure that he didn’t want to relinquish.
Her skin sparked everywhere his hands trailed until they found her hair. Her knees went weak. Janson knew far too much about her from one night. From the corner of her eye, she noticed that Dwayne and Vin backed off, though still not far enough to make this moment completely private.
Janson kissed her ear, his hands still tangled through her hair as he whispered, “I need you to pretend that you can’t get enough of me.”
Pretend? She frowned. She wouldn’t have been pretending if he hadn’t said anything. What was he talking about? “Janson?”
He trailed kisses down her cheek, still close enough to whisper again, “Okay, that’s perfect. Now I need you to slap