Stay With Me (24 page)

“Hey,” I said, moving my hand along his arm. We needed to get back on course, get our mojo going again. “Tell me about your day.”

He looked up from his beer questioningly. “My day?”

“Please,” I said. “My day sucked mice. I want to hear about someone else’s.”

Duncan chuckled and set his mug down, keeping his other arm in place under my hand, which I was completely taking advantage of.

“Well, I had two surgery consults, a teeth cleaning, a gland aspiration—”

“Ohhh,” I said, pulling a face.

“Yeah, you get used to that, believe it or not,” he said with a small shrug. “And then there was a blur of shots and stool samples.”

“Normal day?”

“Pretty much,” he said. “Had an odd stare-down with a pregnant cat. She was pretty sure I wasn’t getting near her, and I was just as certain that I was.”

I laughed and took a swig from my frosty mug.

“Still sounds better than mine,” I said.

“Even with the glands?” he asked, amusement playing at his eyes again, pushing the dark forces away.

“Even with.”

“So then, Miss Barnes,” he said. “Do tell about those rotten mice.”

“Ugh,” I muttered, hanging my head. “Let’s find someone else to ask about theirs and start a trend.”

He smirked and lifted my face. “Theirs would suck, too.” Taking one of my hands, he lifted it to his lips, kissing one finger at a time.

Goose bumps spread over my body and significant tingling hit some important places as I watched him do that, never breaking eye contact with me.

“Well, keep doing that and I may forget it all entirely.”

He smiled, and it was wicked. “I’m just here to help.”

The waitress came and we ordered, unfortunately. I would have been good with finishing my beer and grabbing a bag of chips at the corner store.

“Come dance with me,” I said, noting a slow song playing and knowing I needed some body-to-body contact and soon.

“Your wish,” he said, getting to his feet.

And the moment he turned and I was in his arms, I felt my bones turn to mush. He was amazing. Hard and solid and—Jesus, those eyes. When he looked at me like that, with no smile, just deep serious shit, it was like—I was stuck in time. Falling into somewhere deep, where there was no one else, and—oh, shit, he was kissing my temple and down my cheek, one hand just barely legally north of the border, and then his lips were on mine. Hungry and needy. Thank God. I threaded my arms around his neck and pulled him in, wanting all of him. Even the part that was wrapping around my heart.

We kissed and melted together as we moved, his hands traveling from my back to up in my hair and back again. I was ready. Ready to go back to his place and lose our minds. Or mine. Didn’t matter. I just needed to lose myself in the feel of him, his taste, his smell. I was on sensation overload.

“Do we really need to eat?” I said against his ear in my most wickedly sexy tone.

I felt the groan in his chest and gasped when he squeezed me tighter against him.

“You are killing me, woman,” he said.

“That gentleman thing still a priority?” I asked.

“Hanging by a thread.”

I chuckled and wound my hands into his hair, unable to stop myself. God, I was a slutty mess tonight. “If it makes it any better, it’s killing me too,” I said. “You feel—”

“—so good,” he finished, kissing me softly.

God help me, I had to make it off that dance floor.

My legs were wobbly when we made it back to the table, where thankfully the grilled shrimp we ordered and two more beers awaited us. I hadn’t thought I was hungry, but it gave me something to do with my hands, and right then, I needed that.

“So, back to your day,” Duncan said, spearing a shrimp.

I laughed. “Really?”

“If I’m gonna pull this gentleman thing off,” he said with a shake of his head, “then I have to think about something other than what I’m thinking about.”

“Hmm, and what would that be?” I asked, working the flirty angle.

“Nope,” he said. “Come on. Day. Mice. Spill.”

“Must we?”

“You know—I don’t remember the last time anyone asked me how my day was,” he said. “But you did, and it brought me out of a funk, because you know what? This right here is the highlight of it.”

I smiled and realized he was right. And we weren’t leaving anytime soon. He wasn’t interested in a one-night romp or getting right to it. He wanted a date. He wanted all of me.

“Yes, it is. And mine actually started good. Got a surprise visit from my daughter.”

“That’s right,” he said. “The empty nest and all that,” he said, cocking his head and winking at me. “I remember.”

“Sweet God, I wish you didn’t,” I said, covering my face with a hand. “The babbling—it’s a disease.”

He laughed and pulled my hand away. “I love your babbling, don’t knock it.”

“It’s your fault, so you should,” I said.

He widened his eyes with a grin. “My fault?”

“Yes!” I said. “You—look at me sometimes and it’s so—God. Like it—”

“Takes your breath away a little?” he said.

My face grew hot, and I laughed nervously. “Yeah.”

“I know. You do that to me, too,” he said.

What?
“Bullshit,” I said.

He laid a hand on his chest. “No lie. Sometimes you look at me and I swear I forget everything else around me. It’s why I had nearly everything done before you got there the other night.”

I laughed softly. “Seriously?”

“I knew I’d be too nervous to make anything edible with you that close.”

Wow. I made him nervous. That was so unbelievably hot.

“That’s so adorable,” I said.

“No, it’s nerve-wracking,” he said. “It’s been a lot of years since I felt like a nervous teenage boy.”

“Well, you weren’t alone,” I said. “My teenage self was sweating too. But at least your mouth doesn’t take over and start spewing nonsense,” I said.

“Now, I think that’s cute,” he said.

“You say that now,” I said in a mocking tone. “But just wait.”

“You’re saying I could still affect you like that in twenty years?” he said.

I opened my mouth but words failed me. Did he just say that?

“Um—you never know.”

There was that look again, coupled with a tug at his lips that pulled at all my important parts.

“So,” I said, my voice going scratchy. I took a swallow of beer. “So, yes, I have a daughter named Abby. Just one. She’s grown, no rugrats.” I pretended to frown. “Do you have rugrats?”

He shook his head. “Sadly, no.”

“You wanted kids?” I asked.

“I did,” he said, looking away. “But it didn’t work out that way. And my family—” He let out a sigh. “Let’s just say they aren’t conducive to adding innocent children to the fold.”

I grimaced before I could pull it back. “Yikes.”

“Just a personal choice,” he said. “And now back to you.”

I narrowed my eyes. “So slick, how you did that there.”

“Like that move?” he said on a grin. “I have many more.”

“I’ll bet you do.”

“And so do you, I see,” he said, interlocking his fingers with my left hand. “But since I am the professional subject dodger at the table, I’m calling you out.”

“Can’t dodge a dodger, huh?” I said.

“So, your daughter came over,” he said smoothly, making me laugh as his eyes played the game. “And then?”

“And then, then there was work,” I said, feeling the glow fade a little. “A conversation with my dad that I didn’t want to have, followed by a meeting with a slimeball that I equally didn’t want to have.”

Duncan’s fingers squeezed mine and his blue eyes went soft. “Sorry to hear that. Can I help?”

Fall for him, Savi. He’s the keeper guy.

Funny thing was, I wasn’t talking myself into it anymore. It was happening. Right before my eyes, it was happening.

“Nah, it’s just—my dad and I have built Old Tin Barnes into what it is, it’s our life. And now he’s wanting to sell it,” I said.

Duncan frowned in surprise. “Sell it? Why?”

“It’s a long and convoluted story,” I said.

“I have time.”

Oh, hell no, I wasn’t falling down that dark and depressing hole. Not tonight.

“CliffsNotes version is this,” I began, bringing a chuckle. “Big antiques TV show is wanting to suddenly buy us out and take over, and while my dad normally wouldn’t be interested in such a thing, now he is because there are—some not-so-nice people threatening to hurt the business or bring it down if we don’t give them a cut. And he wants out before that happens.”

I held up my hands,
ta-da
style, and smiled. Duncan didn’t. His brows got increasingly closer together.

“That’s extortion,” he said.

“Yep.”

“From who?” he said, his voice going low.

“It doesn’t matter—”

“Savanna, please,” he said, his expression different. Darker. His jaw muscle twitched.

“It’s run by a man named Bobby Greene,” I said, a little thrown off by his change in demeanor. “You probably haven’t heard of him, not being from here, but he’s kind of a land baron in Katyville.”

Duncan rubbed at his eyes. “I’ve heard of him,” he said, his voice sounding weary.

“Well, then you know he’s not one to mess with,” I said. “My dad is friends with his brother—sort of—and that’s kept us out of it, but Georgie’s retiring now.”

“How do you know they’d come after you?” Duncan said, folding his hands in front of his face with what appeared to be a great show of patience. Or restraint. I couldn’t tell.

“Georgie told my dad,” I said. “Plus, they already go after Ian’s family across the street. It’s insane, seriously,” I said. “You wouldn’t think this shit would be going on here in Copper Falls.”

And I was dragging us down the trail of bad date karma again.

“So anyway,” I said, pulling his hands apart and squeezing them. They were tight, his muscles coiled. “That’s not what tonight is about. I only tell you because, well, for one, you forced me to—”

Duncan took a deep breath.

“Duncan?”

He nodded. “Guilty.”

“And two, I just wanted you to know in case I get spacey or grumpy. I tend to do that when I’m stressed,” I said. “And I’ve been a little of that lately. I’m sorry.”

He gave me a look. “You never have to be sorry. Just talk to me. What’s this TV show?”

I took a deep breath and blew it out. He wasn’t going to let it go. “Antique Nation. But I don’t know, it seems—funny to me.”

“What does?”

“This Miss Slade lady that represents them, and the fact that we never existed before and now suddenly she’s hard-selling us and another business in town like we’re some hot commodity. I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “And I don’t want to beat this up any more tonight. I want to forget about all that for one night and just enjoy this with you.”

Duncan was regarding me so intently I didn’t know what to make of it. Then he inhaled slowly, leaned forward on his arms all the way over to my side, over our food, and kissed me.

“Done,” he whispered against my lips, then sat back down in one slow movement. “I’m enjoying this night with you very much.”

“Me too,” I said, my breath a little taken away at the surprise move.

“So then tell me, Savanna Barnes,” he said, taking my fork from me. He stabbed a shrimp and dipped it in a butter sauce before resting it on my lips, teasing them open. “What’s something about you that other people don’t know?”

Everything in my core tightened up at the way he teased me with that shrimp, and as I curled my tongue around it and sucked it off the fork, I watched his eyes go dark as well.

“Shit,” he breathed.

I licked the butter off my lips and smiled. “Skeleton keys.”

He blinked, and from the unfocused look in his eyes, I would guess he’d lost some blood in his head.

“Do what?”

“I collect skeleton keys,” I said. “Wherever I find them.”

“Really,” he said. “What started that?”

I laughed and took his fork. “You really want to know about my skeleton key fetish?”

“I want to know
you,”
he said as I speared a shrimp from his plate and did the same to him. “Fetishes and all.”

I felt my skin light up from the soles of my feet all the way up.

His phone buzzed from where it sat near the edge of the table, and he glanced in its direction, his face falling.

“Hang on,” he said, holding up a finger. “This is the emergency line, I have to take it. But don’t forget where we were.”

“Fetishes,” I said.

He closed his eyes and groaned as he hit the button. “Dr. Spoon.”