Page 24 of Red Hot Harmony

I had to remind myself that Ally was fifteen.

Just a kid.

A soft crack sounded as Dante bit into the candy, cursing under his breath, then apologizing for it.

Still, I found him nothing short of fascinating. I wasn’t sure why, because I’d known him for months. I’d touched him. I’d tasted him. Yet right now, he felt new and different and...very humanly fragile.

His window was rolled down and occasional gusts of air tousled his black hair. The light stubble that shadowed his jaw made him look thinner than he was in this scattered evening light.

“Thank you for helping us today,” I finally said, my nerves still twisted.

“Absolutely.” Dante nodded, his gaze snapping to me for the briefest moment and then going back to the road. “I’ve done a lot of illegal stuff.” A smirk. “Never stole a cat.”

The absurdity of the whole thing suddenly had me laughing. Laughing so hard, stopping seemed impossible.

“See. I can be a very reliable crime partner.” He smiled.

“That you can,” I agreed.

The rest of the drive wasn’t as gloomy and by the time we pulled up to my house, I felt somewhat better. The fight with Ally still stung, but there was nothing I could do to fix it tonight. She needed to cool off and I needed to come up with a better strategy, a better explanation.

I’m your mother and you’ll do as I saydidn’t cut it anymore. Truth was, that sentence hadn’t worked on me when my own mother used it. It only made me want to do all the things she forbade.

“Thanks for inviting me. I had a really good time,” Dante rasped out as we came to halt behind my 4Runner. His hand was resting on the gear lever when he turned to face me, a pose indicating he’d leave if I asked him to. His expression said otherwise. There was longing in his eyes and I suspected he saw the same longing in me because the idea of going inside my empty house alone terrified me.

“Do you want to come in for a second?” My voice shook a little when I spoke.

A beat of taut silence passed.

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.” His breath met my cheeks and I felt them flush. Heat washed over me, head to toe, wringing out each and every nerve ending. The reaction was so unexpected, I lost track of what I was going to say, of all the reasons I was going to give him.

“I—” My chest swelled.

“Don’t do this if you don’t mean it, Camille.” Dante leaned forward, his mouth nearing mine. His plea hung in the warm air between us, substantial.

The kiss was exquisite in its gentleness, a teasing graze of his lips against mine, but it was enough to see where this could lead, if I—we—let it happen.

I could imagine it, the tangle of our bodies on the bed sheets as if he planted the picture in my mind with a mere touch.

“I don’t want to be alone,” I said carefully, weighing each word, trying to understand what they would mean to him in this situation, how exactly he’d perceive them.

Dante’s eyes grew darker, so dark they looked black. A muscle twitched in his jaw, a motion hardly discernible.

More seconds ticked by. Then he killed the engine and stepped out of the car and into the cool night.

I followed.

We walked to the front door in silence, and my mind raced with the possibilities of what could happen.

There was a light jingle of my keys as I fished them from my pocket and tried to slip one into the keyhole. The trembling in my hand made it tricky. The last time a man had stayed over was so long ago, the entire event was a blur, a dull spot somewhere on a strip of my memory that wasn’t worth remembering.

Dante’s fingers, long and elegant, slid over mine. His breathing was hot and shallow against the back of my neck.

I let the keys fall into the cradle of his palm. The decision was now his.

He unlocked the door.

We lingered there as if unsure what to do next, as if our whole lives depended on this one singular moment. And perhaps, they did.

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