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“And throw this shit away, will you?” He motioned toward the pizza boxes still sitting on the table. “You know better than to leave a mess like that lying around my kitchen.”
Keene huffed out a disgusted breath but started to pick up the boxes and crumple them so they’d fit in the trash. “You always spoil Alec more than me.”
Hudson sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine. We can drive all the way across fucking town to get you those nasty nachos you love, too.”
“Really?” Keene instantly brightened. “Sweet.” Waving at me and Damien, he hurried toward the door as well. “See y’all later. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t.” Pausing halfway outside, he leaned back in to grin mischievously. “Which pretty much means do all of it. And by the way…” He pointed at me. “I left a present in Arch’s nightstand drawer for ya just so you could.”
As he disappeared into the night as well, Hudson hissed out a long, exhausted sigh and ripped open his chef’s jacket so he could shrug it off, revealing a black T-shirt underneath.
“I swear, they’re a never-ending chore,” he claimed as he tossed the white jacket onto the back of a chair. Then, his gaze drifted to Damien before he lifted one finger in farewell. “Don’t worry, man. I got ’em from here. They won’t bother you two for the rest of the night.”
“Thanks,” Damien said quietly, his voice a subtle rumble that caused my hormones to twinge, despite how mortified I was.
“And Oaklynn,” Hudson added, making me zip my gaze to him just in time to catch him shooting me a wink. “You have no idea how nice it was to meet you,” he assured before he slipped out the door behind the other two, leaving Damien and me alone in the suddenly very quiet, very empty kitchen.
Turning to him, I finally gushed, “I amsosorry. I totally did not mean to out you like that. And I basically called you a dirty, rotten kiss-and-teller, too. That was just—”
“Hey,” he said softly, lifting his hand to slip a soft knuckle down my cheek. “It’s fine. You don’t have anything to apologize for. I usuallydotell them everything. I just…” He blew out a long breath and glanced away briefly before his whiskey gaze returned, searing into me. “I wanted to keep this one to myself for a while and savor the memory before they went and—I don’t know—cheapenedit with their…moronic humor.”
I sent him a rueful cringe. “I mean, wewerekind of tawdry. Anyone could’ve seen us in those trees. God. Someone might have.”
Damien only shrugged. “Well, it didn’t feel cheap or tawdry to me. It felt…special.”
But as soon as he admitted that, his eyes flared guiltily as if he felt he’d just confessed too much.
My stomach tightened into guilty knots. “Was that really your first one-night stand?”
He didn’t answer, but the way he pulled himself up tighter and his eyes darkened in that mysterious, closed-off way of his, I could tell it had been.
And it made me groan. “Oh my God, Damien. Why didn’t you say anything?”
Making a face as if the question puzzled him, he asked, “Say what?No? Yeah, right. I wasn’t going to pass up the only chance I was given to be with you.”
I flushed, flattered that he’d wanted me as badly as I’d wanted him. I mean, I didn’t exactly have trouble catching a guy when I was interested in one, but I’d never reached quite so far out of my league for someone likehimbefore, either.
“But we… I didn’t mean to make you break your moral code.”
“It’s not acode,” he assured. “I didn’t have some line drawn in the sand that I had previously refused to cross. I just…hadn’t done it before.”
I lowered my brows into a fake pout as I stepped closer and reached up to play with the front of his shirt, smoothing the cloth over his chest. “That’s too bad,” I murmured. “For a second there, I kind of liked sounding potent enough to make you forget your own rules.”
He swayed forward, his heat enveloping me. “You’re definitely potent enough. I promise you that.”
Gripping two fistfuls of his shirt, I looked up into his eyes. “Well, I refuse to lead a good man astray from his securely placed principles.”
“They weren’t that secure.”
“Shh,” I murmured, letting him know I was going somewhere with this. And I sent him a coy smirk. “There’s only one way to fix this, you know.” When he lifted one eyebrow, I stepped closer until our chests nearly touched, our eyes were only inches apart, and our breaths drifted across each other’s lips. “We’re going to have to do it a second time so it can no longer be considered a one-night stand.”
His throat shifted as he swallowed, and his eyes swirled with desire. “You sure you’re willing to go through all that…just for me?”
My return smile was pure seduction. “It’ll be a trial, for sure, but I think I’ll manage to suffer through.” Smoothing my hands down until I found one of his, I hooked our fingers together and stepped back. “Show me to your room.”
20
OAKLYNN
Damien released a breath and nodded.
