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She crawled across the net and he grabbed hold of her and kissed her hard.
“You’re beautiful, you know that?” The firm set of her jaw told him she was too focused to be affected by his praise, and her determination filled him with joy—and turned him on. He’d taken a big chance bringing her here. He’d bet on her wanting to conquer the challenge, but after their conversation in the parking lot, he’d worried he might have pushed her too far.
“Let me get down first so I can help you.” He held on to the net and flipped over the edge.
“Wow.” She gripped the edge of the net, and by the time he realized she was going to flip off, it was too late. She was in the air, and landed unsteady on her feet beside him, her hands splayed out to her sides for balance. “Whoa.”
He wrapped her in his arms. “I’ve got you.”
“I didn’t expect to be disoriented.” She found her footing a second later, went up on her toes, and kissed him again. He liked this new habit of hers. “Come on.” She took off for the ladder. “Gigi said I could try to jump to you!”
Not one to give up, Tiffany quickly learned to hang on to the bar, then to hang from her feet, and also how to control when she fell. She tried for more than an hour to master the jump. They both hung from their feet, Dylan’s arms outstretched, Tiffany’s face a mask of determination, as they worked together to find their groove. Several falls, a hearty amount of laughter, and too many kisses to count later, they did just that. The first time Tiffany trusted him enough to try, his heart opened up. The second time, it called out to her. And by the third time, when her fingers circled his wrists, then slipped away as she sailed to the net, she climbed inside. And every time thereafter—every fall and every success—when the strength of their connection shone in her eyes, he wanted to lock it up and throw away the key.
Chapter Sixteen
THE EVENING COULDN’T have been more perfect. True to his promise, Dylan and Tiffany sat on the dock and talked while she checked her messages. Then they went for a long motorcycle ride before heading back into the city. She wanted the night to last forever. She felt freer than she could ever remember feeling, and happy. Truly, blissfully happy, except beneath all that happiness was sadness that she was trying to keep tamped down until they were someplace private. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the sister he’d mentioned, but she was biding her time to bring her up.
They picked up takeout from the Italian restaurant on the corner by their apartment, and Tiffany snuggled in beneath his arm as they stepped into the elevator in their apartment building.
Dylan pushed the button for the top floor.
“Do you havetwoapartments?” she asked.
“No. Have you ever been on the roof?”
“Of our building? No.”
He leaned in for a kiss. She loved how big he was, that he had to bend to kiss her and she had to go up on her toes to kiss him. Those weren’t things she’d noticed about men before. Not even with Rob.
“That’s where we’re having dinner,” he answered.
“How? They must keep that door locked.”
He dangled his keys from his finger. “Phoebe owns the building. When I moved in, she gave me a key. I thought I’d go up there and chill, you know? And I did, a time or two, but it wasn’t what I thought it would be.”
The elevator stopped, and she followed him down to a door at the end of the hallway. “Then why are we going up there?”
He unlocked the door and held it open for her to walk through, then followed her up the narrow staircase and unlocked the door that led out to the roof. “Because it was lonely before. Now it won’t be.”
God, what his lines—truths—did to her.
He pushed open the door, revealing not only a breathtaking view of the city lights, but also a bed of plush blankets, candles, and sticking out of the top of a cooler, a bottle of wine.
“Dylan, this is beautiful. When did you have time to do this?”
“I set it up before we left. The ice is melted, but I only wanted the wine to be about fifty degrees, so it should be perfect.”
He set the food on the blanket and she went to him and guided his arms around her. Standing on her toes, she touched her lips to his.
“Ms. Winters, you can flirt all you want, but this is a no-sex night, and I will not be swayed.”
She laughed. “I might not be trying to sway you.”
“You’re not sure?” he teased.
“I want to thank you. You put so much thought into our date, and it means the world to me. I never imagined that a single date could bring us so close together.”
“It wasn’t the single date.”
