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Chapter Four
“Being treated like royalty at restaurants is a definite perk to dating Chicago's favorite professional party girl,” Dalton remarked as he walked Hannah to her car. She'd insisted on driving herself to the restaurant for a couple reasons. First, she'd needed to go back to the office after picking out a costume for the fete to gather up her coat. But the main reason had been that she hadn't been lying when she'd told Dalton her guard was up. Taking risks, such as getting into cars with men she barely knew, was something carefree-Hannah had done, before she’d been slipped a roofie. No way would she do it now.
Even if the man she was with had the ability to make her feel safe simply by the sound of his voice alone.
“Just wait until I take you out for coffee at Joe’s Joe.” She smiled up at him as she hit the lock on her car’s key fob, then promptly forgot what she was doing when he returned that smile in spades. Dear God, this man was breathtaking. “They’ll fill you up with so much caffeine you won’t sleep for days, but it’s totally worth it.”
“It’s a date.” He came to an abrupt stop as well to stare down at her as if he couldn’t get enough of the sight of her face. “In fact, everything we do should be a date from here on in, from eating, to grabbing a cup of coffee, to breathing. You game?”
Her eyes widened, and suddenly that breathing he mentioned was hard to do. “You mean we should spend more time together?”
“I mean we should spend every waking moment together. Time without you in it is a complete waste.” While she was still reeling from that statement, he reached out and cupped the side of her jaw, his fingers sliding into her hair. “You’re good with that, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Her response was swallowed by his mouth, but she didn’t mind. When a man kissed a woman like it was what he was put on earth to do, she could pretty much forgive him anything.
She went up on her tiptoes to meet the sensual pressure of his kiss, her arms reaching to twine around his neck. The action pressed her body against his in an intimate contact that nearly stopped her heart, because now all she could do was imagine what it would be like to meld their bodies together without all their clothing in the way.
That thought had heat blooming with an achy sweetness between her legs, and she couldn’t help but moan softly against his lips.
As if taking that sound as a sign to kick things up a notch, his mouth opened on hers. The first sweep of his tongue almost knocked her knees out from under her. To make sure she didn’t go into a full-on swoon, she leaned heavily into him and drank in the solidly masculine strength of him. God help her, he felt so crazy good she could almost believe he’d been made for her.
They touched in a continuous line, from breast to chest, belly to hip, and the friction they created flashed a wave of heat over her skin until she half-feared she’d burn up right there in his arms. Kissing Dalton redefined the word hot, and she loved it. Seriously loved it.
But she couldn’t help but wonder if their fit would be even better without all their damn clothes separating them.
Too bad this thought hit while in the middle of a parking lot where she couldn’t do a thing about it.
As if reading her mind, Dalton raised his head just enough to look at her while his hands slid down her back to cup her ass. “If spending every waking hour with you is going to be like that, I’m never sleeping again.”
The mention of sleep made her think about beds, and beds made her think of all the things they could do in a bed besides sleep. “Sleeping’s overrated.”
“Spending time together isn’t.” His hands tightened on her booty, pulling her against his hips. The growing hardness against her pelvis was so damn exciting she nearly forgot to breathe. “When’s your next day off?”
“This weekend.” She answered on reflex, because all her brain could center on was his hardening cock and how genuinely impressive it was proving to be. “You’re not on call, are you?”
He grimaced. “I am, which means I can’t promise giving you an uninterrupted evening.”
“I don’t mind. I understand this is your life. I accept and respect that.”
“Yeah?” Something moved through his expression, softening it in a way she couldn’t quite put her finger on, but it was beautiful to watch. “Jesus. A fucking dream come true.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Nothing.” Absently he shook his head, all the while looking at her as if he didn’t know how to look at anything else. “It’s just that a lot of docs can’t keep a relationship going because there are times when life-and-death situations have to jump the line ahead of everyone else—including the people who might mean the most to them.”
For a full second her heart stilled before she reminded herself that they were virtual strangers. He couldn’t possibly be referring to her as someone who meant the most to him. “If that’s true, those docs need to pull their heads out of their asses and look for someone who knows the world doesn’t always revolve around them.”
“And that’d be you, yeah?”
“No one’s world has ever revolved around me, trust me on this.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.” He bent his head and kissed her again, and it took a conscious effort not to groan when his mouth went about making love to hers for a good long while before he broke away once more. “So... the weekend’s a hit-or-miss prospect. What are you doing Thursday night?”
She finally unleashed the groan. “Work, unfortunately.”
“On a Thursday night?”
“Professional party girl, remember? I have to attend a VIP pre-grand opening event for an all-male strip club that apparently is like those Magic Mike movies. It’s called the Thunder Club, if you can believe it. And then the night after that, Friday, I’ve got the CATE Fete, so that’s out, too.”
He shook his head. “No way.”
“I know, right? Our schedules are completely nuts, but I’m sure we can work something out.”
“No, beautiful, you’re reading me wrong. I meant no way are you going to go to that club. Not by yourself, anyway.”
She went still, suddenly aware of the autumn chill in the night air. “I cover grand openings all the time, Dalton.”
“I don’t give a shit about what you’ve done in the past.” He waved this away, and she took advantage of the gesture by dropping her arms from around his neck and stepping back. “Here and now is what I have my sights set on. I’ll go with you to this club.”
Um. “Do you know what the Magic Mike movies are all about?”
“I know you’re not going into a place like that without me right there making the statement that you’re not there to play. You’ll go in, take a look around, talk to the owner for a few minutes, and then you’re out of there. Done deal.”
“Except covering a grand opening—or anything that I write about, for that matter—is never as slap-dash as that.”
“You’re going to make an exception on this one.”
