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Ty took her arm, tugging her round to face him, his expression illuminated by the gathering dusk.
“He abandoned you, Zel, when you were just a little kid and he was the only family you had left. You do know you’re not to blame for that, right?”
“Of course, I do.” She jerked her arm free, suddenly afraid that he would be able to feel the jittering pulse under his thumb. And see through the lie to the fear beneath, that she was to blame for Seb’s abandonment, because she’d been so difficult and so unlovable in the years after their parents’ death.
She forced a smile to her lips. The sultry, sexy, couldn’t-give-a-shit smile she had perfected over the years to hide the great big gaping wound in her heart. The smile that told everyone she was a bad girl, and that’s the way she liked it.
“Now can we please stop talking about Seb? I thought you were going to take me to Coney Island? Not bore me to death with a conversation about my brother.”
His frown arrowed down, and a muscle twitched in his jaw. She braced herself for a blast of temper at her failure to give this discussion the gravity he probably thought it deserved. But to her surprise, the blast of temper never came. Instead, he looked away, his face rigid, but when he turned back, he’d pasted an easy smile on those sensual lips. The muscle in his jaw was still twitching, though.
“Fair point.” He opened the passenger door of the SUV. “Climb aboard, princess. We better get you to Coney Island before your chariot turns into a pumpkin.”
She beamed her bad girl smile back at him, before placing a light, teasing kiss on his lips. “Let’s hurry, it’s not every day a girl gets to go on her first rollercoaster ride.”
But as he climbed into the driver’s seat and backed out of the lot, it occurred to her even her first rollercoaster ride was unlikely to leave her feeling as giddy as Ty Sullivan had managed with one far too perceptive conversation.
*
“Hot dogs! Nathan’s Famous are hot dogs. And they’re delicious.” Zel’s eyes lit up, much as they had done most of the evening, the dark blue sparkling with enthusiasm as the light from the Ferris wheel a block away illuminated her flushed skin.
Ty watched as she consumed another huge bite of her Nathan’s Famous, enjoying the way she devoured it, the way she’d devoured every new experience tonight—with an infectious enthusiasm at discovering new things, and without an ounce of the snobbery he would have expected from her three days ago. Before he’d come to know her.
He didn’t think he’d ever forget the earsplitting shriek she’d let out when their car had arrived at the top of the Cyclone, the vintage wooden structure creaking ominously before they swooped down into the night. She’d held her arms above her head like a pro and screamed her lungs out right next to his ear.
And he’d loved it.
The woman was wild and untamed and all the more beautiful for it. There was a danger to Zelda, a sort of unstoppable joy about the way she consumed experiences, the same way she consumed sex. As if she were scared that it might be her last chance, so she was bound and determined to make the most of it.
She was easily the hottest woman he’d ever dated. Not just in bed but also out of it. She made him feel alive in a way he never had before. He’d always been so damn cautious. Careful not to get sidetracked by the little things in life, because it was only the big stuff that mattered—working hard, achieving his goals, and making sure he didn’t step into the same trap as his parents, living a chaotic existence, with too many mouths to feed, in a tiny apartment running a business that sucked all the energy out of you.
But right now, all his caution didn’t seem like such a great thing. Had he maybe been too cautious? Because how had his plan turned him into a workaholic who’d never made a real connection with any woman, who lived on a house barge that was little more than a pit stop and whose whole life had become a dull round of case files and plea bargains and trial dates?
He avoided his family, rarely took time off and when he did, it was usually to crash into bed and think about the stuff he had to do next. Somehow or other his carefully planned out life had become no life at all. And he might never have figured that out, but for these last three days with Zelda.
“Damn it, Zelda, that’s a capital offense.” He teased as she stuffed another huge bite into her mouth.
“Wot iz?” she said, her eyes wide as she talked round a mouth full of bread and beef frank.
“I don’t care how long you lived in London, you were born in Manhattan, right?”
She nodded.
“Which makes you a freaking New Yorker. And every New Yorker should know hot dogs were created in Coney Island by Nathan Handwerker.”
She swallowed. “What are you, the pop culture police?”
“Damn straight.” He grinned at the snotty tone, then brushed his thumb over her lip, catching the drop of ketchup that hung at the edge of her mouth.
She watched him as he licked it off his thumb. The tart, sweet taste lingered in his mouth as she looked away, but he had spotted the flash of knowledge.
Jesus, he wanted her again. The hunger hadn’t really gone away all night, even when they’d been playing the slots, or riding the Wonder Wheel, or joining in the karaoke dances on the beach. He had to be the only guy capable of getting aroused while busy shuffling his butt out of time to Cha-Cha Slide Part Two with a hundred other people. Or when she’d stood with her back against his chest, his arms wrapped around her as they watched the fireworks explode over the bay signaling the last day of summer.
The woman was like a drug, both potent and addictive. He dumped the last of his own dog in the trash as they headed back towards the parking lot, unsettled by the grinding weight in the pit of his stomach, at the thought that the weekend was nearly over.
Neon lights glittered in the night sky, the piped music hyperactive and discordant as it filled the muggy air with fake merriment. The scent of popcorn and freshly cooked donuts smothered the sea air as they headed past the food vendors and hit the main thoroughfare.
She finished her dog and he lobbed her napkin into a trash can, before taking her hand loosely in his. The soft skin felt cool in his, but she didn’t draw away.
