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They didn’t speak again until they finished eating. It was a compatible, thoughtful silence, the kind that signaled one or both parties were thinking hard about something.
Nate suppressed the urge to crack jokes to get Kris smiling again and let the quiet sit. Kris needed the processing time.
“Thank you,” she said, helping him clear the table. “For coming with me to dinner. I know that was a lot to take in.”
“Any time. I mean that.” Nate tossed the used paper towels into the trash can and eyed Kris with concern. “How are you feeling?”
“Like my head’s about to explode.” She drained the rest of her water and rinsed the glass. “This day did not turn out the way I thought it would.”
“No kidding.”
“I have so many questions left. Like where my mom—aunt—Mariana went.” Kris stumbled over the terminology. “Why she left. Why she sent that letter. And why Gemma is here now, after all these years. How’d she find me? Is it a coincidence we frequented the same cafe, or did she know who I was the entire time?”
“I don’t want to assume anything,” Nate said. “But I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“You don’t strike me as a guy who believes in fate, either.”
“I didn’t.” A lopsided grin. “Until I met you.”
Kris dropped her eyes, her hands shaking as she dried them with a dish towel. “Don’t say stuff like that.”
“Why not?”
“Because.” She drew her bottom lip between her teeth, and it was all Nate could do not to grab her and kiss her senseless. Sometimes the hold Kris had on him and his emotions scared the shit out of him, but he wouldn’t trade it for anything else in the world. “I was sure I couldn’t love you more than I already did, and I don’t like being proven wrong.”
His chest cracked open in the best kind of way, and this time, Nate gave in to his urges. He grabbed Kris and pulled her flush against him while his mouth plundered hers, stroking and teasing until she gasped little moans that turned him harder than steel.
It was love and passion, yes, but also oblivion. He couldn’t do much for her right now except be there for her and help her forget, if only for a short while.
Kris must’ve been on the same page because she arched against him with a desperation that wasn’t entirely due to the lust thickening the air between them.
“Take me upstairs.” She nipped his bottom lip, and steel turned to fucking titanium. “Make me forget, just for tonight. I can look for more answers tomorrow, but tonight…” Another nip. Another bolt of heat straight to his groin. “I need to escape.”
Instead of answering, Nate lifted her, wrapped her legs around his waist, and carried her upstairs to his room, where he gave her exactly what she asked for.
It wasn’t a slow, leisurely kind of night; it was fast and hard and knocked the breath out of their lungs, and he didn’t stop until Kris collapsed in his arms, exhausted, and drifted asleep.
Nate kissed her forehead and closed his eyes, wishing—not for the first time—that he had the power to slay nightmares.
