Page 49 of Where There's Smoke

No. No, it was too risky.

Risky, but so, so tempting. It was bad enough just having the two of us out here in the car in the dark without Ranya or Roger or Simone to keep us apart. With just Anthony and me out here, nothing but good sense and fraying restraint kept us from paying cash for a room, slipping in an extra fifty for the clerk’s promise to be discreet, and just getting this out of our systems. Or, when the motels faded into the rearview and there was nothing but parking lots and side streets, it was all I could do not to pull off the highway, pull this car over, and pull him into the backseat.

Rapid tapping worked its way into the otherwise silent darkness. I couldn’t see his hands, but I guessed Anthony was drumming his fingers on the armrest. He kept almost perfect time with my pounding heart, tapping out its frustrated cadence. I fidgeted. Then he did. I hadn’t been this wound up since the night I met him, and that was a very different kind of wound up.

At that thought, I laughed softly.

“What?” he asked.

“Just thinking.” I glanced at him. “You really didn’t like me in the beginning, did you?”

Anthony gave a quiet, almost self-conscious laugh. “Oh, it’s not that. You’re a risky candidate to promote, and I thought your uncle had shot you in the foot by having you do that interview up front. So I suppose you could say I didn’t start out with any kind of optimism. About you, the campaign, any of it. Was nothing personal.”

I chuckled. “And here I thought you were put off by my irresistible charm.”

Anthony laughed softly and slid his hand over my knee. I shivered, instinctively glancing around in case anyone might see. The darkness ensured we wouldn’t get caught, but contact, even something this platonically intimate, gave me a thrill.

And before I could tell myself it would lead to no good, I put my hand over his. If I had a brain, I’d have just kept my hand there for a moment or two, then put it back on the wheel, but I didn’t. I didn’t want him lifting his away, and who was I kidding? I liked touching him. God, Ilovedit, no matter how much every second of warm contact eroded my restraint.

Then Anthony broke the silence. “I’ve been going crazy,” he said, his voice low as if someone else might overhear. “I swear to God, if I don’t get you alone soon…”

I shivered again, gripping the wheel tighter. “You’re not the only one.”

He squeezed my leg. “I’m not kidding, if this—”

He stopped abruptly when I made a sharp right turn down a side street.

“Wait, where are you going?” he asked. “This is the wrong way.”

“No, it isn’t.”

His hand tensed on my thigh, but he didn’t move it.

Heart pounding, I turned down another side road. I loved these back roads in the middle of nowhere. No one was out this late at night, and there wasn’t a soul to catch me turning this dusty rental car off onto a deserted dirt road.

“Jesse…”

I stopped on the side of the road and killed the engine. Then the lights.

Our eyes met in the darkness.

He swallowed hard. “Jesse, what are we doing?”

I said nothing. I just unbuckled my seat belt and leaned across the console.

Anthony obviously figured it out, because he slid his hand around the back of my neck and met me halfway.

And he kissed me.

And restraint ceased to exist.

Chapter 11

Anthony

This kiss wasbreathless and unrestrained, the type of kiss thathadto lead to something more. Something we didn’t have time for—and couldn’t risk getting caught doing—and couldn’t wait another damned minute to do.

Anthony. Anthony. Jesus Christ, what are you doing?

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