“Suicide,” she said as she sucked the meat off the bone and dropped the bone onto the plate. Sweat beaded on her upper lip, but she didn’t reach for the water.

“Your turn.” She pushed the basket back to him.

“Just how do we know who wins?” he asked, picking up a wing.

“Whoever wusses out first and reaches for the water.”

“Oh, that won’t be me. I never wuss out.”

She laughed, her eyes moving to the next table. Yet another shiver raced up her spine. Duncan, the busboy, was clearing off the table. He was staring directly at her with such intensity as he filled the white plastic bucket with dirty dishes. Goosebumps formed on her arms.

Duncan was harmless. She knew that. Someone should tell it to the tingle in her scalp, though. She was being silly. It was all the talk about Greta missing, along with the feeling that she was being watched. Jessica’s claim that she saw a face in Jayna’s bedroom window had unsettled her.

Without a second thought, she grabbed the front of Derek’s shirt and pulled him toward her, planting her lips against his. She felt his shock before he gave in to it. He leaned closer and his lips lifted for a moment before crashing down against her mouth in a toe-curling kiss.

This wasn’t the first kiss they’d shared. However, it was different. She’d instigated it, but he quickly took control. And wow, Derek could kiss. But he’d had a lot of practice. He’d definitely kissed more girls than she’d kissed boys. He was exceptionally good at it. He was so good that if she hadn’t been seated, her knees would have buckled.

He pulled her closer, his hand moving to the back of her head, fingers threading through her hair. His lips pressed harder, and hers spread open.

This was a great kiss. Maybe one of the best she’d ever received. It was the kind of kiss that made a person forget their name. And it came from Dare Brennan. She lifted her hands and pulled her fingers through his hair, too. Then she realized that she was pulling her fingers through his hair as the kiss intensified. She was not only kissing Derek but enjoying it. Hell no!

She shoved backward.

“What was that for?” He blinked rapidly and then glanced all around. “I don’t see Lance Romance?”

She ran a thumb over her lips, which felt swollen, and tried to will her heart back into a regular rhythm.

Forcing a smile, she answered as casually as she could while feeling so breathless. “Just because you’re irresistible.” She poured on the sarcasm and shoved back her chair.

No way could she remain. He would see just how shaken she was. It was all too much. The last two weeks spent with him. Their conversation tonight. His admission about feeling unworthy. His house. Greta missing. Duncan leering. Her racing heart. It was just too much.

“Later Brennan.” She dropped a twenty on the table. If she paid her share, then this was not a date. Shaking off the ill ease and the mounting unwanted attraction from the kiss, she quickly left. She needed to start remembering that they were not really dating.

Chapter 32

Derek reminded himself they were not really dating as he stared at the door Jayna had just shut behind her.

“Damn,” he muttered, touching his tingling lips. Hot damn, Jayna could kiss.

He stood, pulling out a couple more twenties and set them on top of Jayna’s money. He signaled Ivy and quickly ran out the door.

Why, though? Why the hell was he chasing after her? This was all pretend. Jayna certainly wasn’t going to be the woman who would finally take him off the market.

“Jayna!” he yelled, still chasing after her.

She had opened the door of her truck and paused, back stiffening. She turned around. The dim lighting of the parking lot cast her face in shadows.

“What, Dare?”

“What was that kiss about?”

Her forehead creased. “Nothing. Not a damn thing.”

“It felt like a lot more than nothing.”

“This is all pretend,” she told him, waving her hand dismissively.

“Is it really? Because that didn’t feel like pretend to me. And the paramedic was nowhere to be seen.”