“You should’ve told me sooner that this was why you were cancelling,” I said as I looked up at him.
“Would you really have believed me if I’d told you I was breaking our date because of a sick grandmother?”
“I…might have.” Hell no, absolutely not.
He grinned at that, and then he pivoted around so he had me pinned to the counter, one of his thighs lightly pressing against mine. And he whispered right beside my ear, “Please give me another chance, Charlie.”
And now I remembered so very clearly why I’d agreed to go out with Dante in the first place. My entire body responded to his proximity, my heart pounding and all the blood rushing from my brain to my cock, making me feel slightly lightheaded. He was so far out of my comfort zone that I couldn’t even see my comfort zone from there. But somehow, it didn’t matter. When I got close to him, my libido took over and I was able to just go with it.
Usually, sex scared the hell out of me. I’d never gotten farther than oral with my ex in the eight years we’d dated. But I felt certain this could happen with Dante, both because I knew he was the type of man to totally take charge and guide me through it, and because of my new mantra: fear isn’t a valid excuse.
I had let fear shape my life for so long, and so profoundly – up to and including letting it convince me to break up with Jamie. Fear had cost me everything, and now I was absolutely determined to stop letting it dictate my decisions. In fact, I’d decided to embrace the things that frightened me. If something was scary, I was absolutely going to do it anyway.
“Ok. When do you want to go out?” I asked as casually as I could, as if I wasn’t about to suffer from a hard-on induced stroke.
“How about tonight?” He was still really close to me, and his big hands came up and traced a light path down both of my arms.
I started to sink into him, letting lust be my guide. But then I remembered something, and pulled back abruptly as I said, “Shit. I can’t tonight, there’s something I need to do.”
“You’re still mad at me.”
“No, that’s not it. There really is something I have to do tonight.”
“Can I do it with you?”
That kind of surprised me. “You have no idea what you’re volunteering for,” I pointed out.
“I know. But whatever it is, I’m up for it.”
“Are you trying to be extra agreeable to make up for the broken dates?”
“Yup,” he said with a grin. “Will you let me join you?”
“Yeah, ok.” I actually really liked the idea of having someone along for the night I had planned.
“So, what have I gotten myself into?”
I smiled at him cheerfully. “Nothing much. Just a little felony breaking and entering.”
Chapter Two
He’d totally thought I was kidding.
I met him in front of my apartment that evening at six sharp and he started to escort me to his car, but I said, “I’ll drive. We’re going to need my truck for this.”
“For what?”
“For the breaking and entering. Or you know, the part of breaking and entering where we haul away our bounty. Your BMW is too small for the job.”
“So…you were actually serious about that?” Dante stared at me incredulously.
“I never kid about committing felonies,” I told him with mock-seriousness, then swung open the passenger door of my truck for him.
Instead of getting in, he paused right in front of me. He was fighting back a smile, and tried to look grave as he said, “And have you committed a lot of felonies?”
“Nope, this is my first. But I’m highly prepared. I Googled breaking and entering and found out everything I need to know. Plus, now I have you along as a crime consultant.” I flashed a big toothy grin at him.
“So you know what I do for a living.”
“Yes. And granted, bringing you along for this is kind of like bringing a Sherman tank into a knife fight. It’s total overkill. But still, I’ll bet your expertise will come in handy. For one thing, you might know how to work these.” I pulled a little black and white case out of the pocket of my jeans and held it up.
“What is that?”
“It’s a lock picking kit.”
“Is that…my God, it is. It’s got Hello Kitty on it.” He burst out laughing.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I know it’s not the big, manly lock picking set you’re probably used to in your line of work. But this one was half as expensive as any of the others.”
“Where does one even find a Hello Kitty lock picking kit?” Dante asked with a raised eyebrow and a huge smile.
“eBay, of course. You can find anything on eBay.”