One Second After Another (The After Another Series #3) - Bethany-Kris Page 0,35

It means I’m here.”

“So—”

Luca yanked her closer using their still-connected hands until they were chest to chest and eye to eye. “What’s the plan, Penny?”

He really only wanted one thing.

Right then, anyway.

She gave it to him when her plush, pink lips pressed against his without warning. And just like that, Luca couldn’t breathe all over again. His chest tightened with every dance of her lips across his, and then when her tongue darted into his mouth for a taste, he swore the world tilted. Just a little. Just enough.

He wanted to touch her.

Gets his hands all over her.

He wanted her safe.

He just wanted her.

Luca didn’t care what the plan was—not as long as they did it together.

“THANK YOU, MRS. TITCHENS. Enjoy your stay for the evening—and your husband. I hope you can get a refund at the other hotel for the cancellations.”

Penny beamed at the woman behind the desk. “Me, too. Especially since they lost our stuff. How do you do that in a hotel, anyway?”

Sabrina, according to her nametag, only shrugged when she replied, “Sometimes, things just happen. I was happy to figure something out for you here instead. It all worked out in the end.”

Right, Luca thought.

By worked out the woman meant she had allowed Luca and Penny to rent a room in the hotel for the night—but likely more—all based on a lie. Because they didn’t have identification, at least he didn’t have a fake ID, and Penny hadn’t carried anything on her for the night except what she absolutely needed to. He had twenty-five hundred dollars in hundreds inside his wallet, and money spoke louder than any words they could say, anyway.

Penny made up the lie.

They got the room.

“And here is your keycard—have a good night!”

Penny took the sleek, silver card from the short, redhead with another smile. “Thank you.”

Luca scanned the front entrance of the hotel, slightly uncomfortable with the amount of glass that allowed him a decent view of the street outside. They were far enough inside the business that even if someone did recognize them, they would probably need a second look. He would have preferred a hotel with a less open reception, but maybe that was Penny’s point.

She didn’t actually hide. Everyone was looking for her where she couldn’t be found.

“Mr. Titchens?”

Luca’s distraction cost him the sight of Penny heading for the elevator. The receptionist gave him a smile—probably thinking he was tired and over the entire day after the tale Penny spun for the woman—and then nodded after the piece of art currently looking back over her shoulder at him. The wavy, textured length of her white-blonde hair fell down to her mid-back, swaying just over the spot where he knew she had two dimples above the curve of her backside. But her ass was still quite a sight covered in tight, black cargo pants.

It wasn’t even the time.

He had better—far more important—things to focus on other than how hard he could get just watching Penny walk away from him. Except he couldn’t think about anything else but that because Luca was fucked.

Penny winked and tilted her chin in a silent demand for him to follow. He shook his head with a chuckle, not even bothered by the fact she watched him check her out without shame. Why should he be? Look at her.

She was still there.

Still real.

Things were already looking up.

13.

Penny

LUCA wasn’t a loud man—never had been—and it was one of the things Penny liked about him the most. He was such a presence without actually making himself present. He didn’t fill the silence when someone else was quiet. She couldn’t even remember a time when he had tried to take center stage ahead of anyone in his life.

He reminded her of a pillar. Fortitude in the storm. Strength under pressure. Everything that she was sure he didn’t even realize about himself. Because why would he—the man was too busy trying to make the rest of the world happy instead of taking care of himself.

She was part of that, too.

Penny knew it.

She also knew Luca would never tell her that, so when he was quiet in the elevator ride up to the room she had managed to snag for the night, his presence felt heavier to her. Not for any particular reason that she could pinpoint; his face gave nothing away when those shadowy green-blue eyes of his darted her way.

He just ... was.

Maybe he did want to fill the silence. She could feel the way his gaze crawled over