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She shut her mouth suddenly, shocked by how much she was revealing. How had they gone from their prickly interaction this morning to confiding matters of the heart like this?
She blamed it on the food and the romantic setting.
When their stomachs were full, Kane lit a small fire. As they were warming their feet on it, Bud went into the trailer, emerging moments later with the guitar gripped by that handle she’d noticed earlier.
He carried the guitar to Kane, who shook his head. “Ah, no. Not tonight.”
Bud tilted his head at him, a look of confusion in those soulful brown eyes. He set down the guitar before Kane, laid his chin onto it and stared up at him beseechingly.
“Maybe later, Buddy.” Kane tried again.
Bud huffed and shoved his nose at the strings, looking for all the world like he was trying to play it himself. When that didn’t work, he draped a paw over it, managing to pluck the odd string, creating a not very pleasant soundtrack.
“What’s he doing?” Lexi asked, fascinated and amused by whatever his dog was trying to do.
“Nothing,” Kane tried to take the guitar from him, but Bud was doing his best to stop him. “Give it here!”
And now the mutt thought it was a game, ducking and weaving and dragging the guitar with him. Kane faked Bud out with a step away from him, then lunged for the guitar, wrestling it from him.
Triumphant, he sat back down with it in his lap. At Lexi’s bemused expression, he reluctantly explained, “I usually play the guitar after dinner each night. He likes to listen. It’s a thing we do.”
If he had admitted to being an alien, she wouldn’t have been more shocked. She tried to picture the two of them, Kane serenading his dog each night on this beach, and the image made her feel warm inside.
It was uncharacteristically adorable of him.
Feeling wicked despite seeing how the admission had embarrassed him, she replied, “I don’t mind listening to you play. In fact, I’d like that a lot. Besides, look at him.” She pointed at Bud. “You’ll break his little heart if you don’t.”
Kane looked at his dog, then at Lexi, and he knew he’d been played. Even so, he couldn’t risk disappointing Bud.
It was what they did after all.
He began to play, his fingers skillfully plucking the strings in an acoustic version of an Adele song — which just happened to be one of her favorites — but it was when he started to sing with a strong baritone that her insides turned to jelly. Men who could sing was a particular weakness of hers.
Had he learned that in her file too?
There, with his dog’s head resting on his bare feet, Kane sang as if nothing else existed. His dark, broody eyes stared out into the blue-black horizon. The rich smoothness of his voice captured her soul while the longing in them toyed with her heart.
When he was finished, the air between them crackled with electricity.
He looked at her with eyes that had grown hooded. Instinctively, she licked her lips. His gaze flicked down to them. As if they were magnetically pulled together, she felt herself drifting dreamily toward him.
Kane had never sung to a woman before and wasn’t sure what had possessed him to do so tonight. But there was something about Lexi that confused him. On the surface she was everything he abhorred about this city, yet when he scratched below that surface, there was much to be admired and liked.
The flickering light danced through her hair, giving her a mane of fire that only made her more spectacular.
Maybe it was the effect of the great food they’d just eaten, or the impossible romance of the shimmering stars above, but he couldn’t stop himself from drawing close.
Bowing his head, he took her lips into his own. They were every bit as sweet as they looked. A current shot through him as the kiss deepened. Lexi’s arms rose up to wrap around his neck.
It felt like every nerve in her body was reacting to him. She wanted to get closer to him, to connect to him deeply and understand everything about him.
Through his lips she could taste his life and she wanted more, craved it in fact. When her arms went around his neck, it felt so natural that she hadn’t even noticed she had moved.
The world swam and her skin felt hot as his lips pressed onto hers more urgently. Her pulse raced, blood rushing through her veins. She felt more alive than she could ever remember.
When he pulled so abruptly away, she felt as if she had been ripped apart.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
