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Wind whipped through her hair as the bike leaned and lurched through the ride. After a couple minutes, she finally stopped clutching his abdomen quite so tightly and pried open her eyes. It was such a gorgeous night, hot and breezy, with the scent of impending fall in the air. And she was holding on to a sexy-as-hell guy who made her feel safe, just as he’d sworn he would.
She wished they weren’t fighting so she could just savor every moment of this. Dillon and the night and the bike rumbling between her thighs.
Too soon, they were pulling up outside her building. He stopped the bike and took off his helmet before looking back at her, a smile playing around his mouth. “You laughed.”
A bit dazed, she removed her own helmet. Once he’d gotten off, he lifted her to the ground, something she might’ve balked at had her legs not been the consistency of gummy candy. “Did I? It was probably from terror.”
“Even so. It only lasted a second but I heard it. I love it when you laugh.” He brushed her hair out of her face and took her helmet, setting both aside before grabbing her hand. The rightness of the gesture registered first, drowning out her complaints.
He’d lied and misled her. And right now, he looked down at her as if he was counting the stars reflected in her eyes.
“Come on,” he murmured, leading her around the back of the building. Once inside, he tugged her up the stairs.
“Where are we going?” she asked, though she knew the moment they passed her floor.
Where it had all begun for them.
They emerged on the roof, and the questions in her throat turned into a sigh. The entire area was ringed in white lights, and between the small spotlights were purple roses, their velvety petals illuminated in the darkness. With green plants blanketing every available surface except the pathway she and Dillon stood on, she felt as if she’d stepped into a walled jungle covered by a canopy of moonlight.
Her attention landed on the solar panels she must’ve missed before and everything he’d said to her last night clicked into place. “This is yours. You not only came up with the concept, it’s your building.”
He slipped his hands in his pockets and managed to look simultaneously stoic and sheepish. “Technically my parents own it.”
“You really believe in this stuff,” she said, releasing her hair from its clip. Her head still ached, but it was getting better. “Green roofs, and doing better for the environment. It’s not just about saving cash.”
“No.”
“And you designed all this. This gorgeous area, it’s all you?”
“I don’t know that it’s gorgeous, but yeah. All me. Who would I ask for help? Cory’d laugh at me if I showed him this. He’d tell me to stop screwing with flowers and do some real work.”
It wasn’t even what he said so much as the way he said it, with his jaw tight and his gaze on the skyline. As if he had no clue of the functional beauty he’d created.
“I like it when you screw with flowers,” she said quietly. She tucked the small painting under her arm and stepped closer to lay a hand on his chest.
He glanced at her, his wariness evident in every line of his face. “You could do so much more with this than I ever could. I was serious about the houses. If you’d be willing to lend some of your expertise, we could make them even better for the people who move in. Both environmentally and—Christ, what’s the word I want?”
“Artistically?” she guessed.
“Yeah.” He heaved out a breath. “When you get so close to me, it’s like all the wires cross in my head.”
“Only there?”
“No. Fuck no.” His grimace proved just how true that was. “But I can’t start talking about my dick when you already think I am one.”
She didn’t laugh, but she wanted to. Instead she tilted her head and removed her hand. It was far too easy to touch him, and they had to talk. “Why didn’t you tell me who you really are?”
“I did,” he said, hissing out a breath when she rolled her eyes. “Okay, I didn’t tell you the whole story. I should’ve said Cory was my brother. Who my parents were. It had never even occurred to me to hide it until you thought I was the handyman. Then I couldn’t help going along, to see what would happen. I’m used to women wanting me for my money, so you not thinking I had any and still flirting with me was a novelty.”
“The panty flingers,” she said under her breath.
His brows knitted. “Huh?”
“Go on.”
He eyed her, but continued. “I liked that you were seeing me, not my connection to Value Hardware. Even so, I wouldn’t hav
e kept the lie going beyond that afternoon in the bathroom, when you were hostile about the store.” He blew out a breath. “Then there was the roof, and after that you started ranting about Value Hardware—”
