Page 7 of Risk

Kaden takes a drink of his beer before answering, and he holds my eyes the whole time. I swear it’s like someone has doused me in gasoline and struck a match on my skin.

“No.” His voice sounds rougher than it did a moment ago.

“So, we’re both single…” I’m flirting.

Holy shit! I’m flirting with him.

He’s still staring at me with those unreadable but gorgeous brown eyes. “Yeah, we are.”

THREE

“What floor are you staying on?” Kaden asks as he guides me into the waiting elevator with his hand pressed to my lower back.

I’m trying not to come out of my skin at his touch. Even though there’s the fabric of my dress between his palm and the skin on my back, it still feels like that spot is burning.

God, could you imagine how it would feel if his skin were actually touching yours?

I’d probably spontaneously burst into flames.

“Forty-seven. You?”

“Fifty,” he tells me as he leans forward.

I get a whiff of his woodsy aftershave. It makes my lady parts shimmy with utter fucking delight.

Kaden presses the button for my floor. His hand never leaving my lower back.

As the elevator ascends, I become fully aware of the fact that it’s just us in this contained space.

The elevator suddenly seems a lot smaller, and the air is thicker, like there’s less of it.

I also notice he didn’t press the button for his floor. Of course, my analytical brain is now assessing that fact, wondering if he didn’t do it because instead of going to his floor, he’ll be coming to my room, or if he’ll just press it once I’m out of the elevator. Not that I think he’s being presumptuous—because I don’t. Maybe he just intends on walking me to my room.

But from the moment I went to speak to him at the bar, we’ve spent the whole night talking. And I swear…flirting. Not just me, but him too. And he keeps looking at me in this…dark, intense way—which, if I’m not misinterpreting, is definitely lust.

We stayed chatting, even after Ares and Ari disappeared off to their honeymoon suite and Zeus and Cam called it a night, as the kids were asleep on their little feet. Lo had disappeared without a word, but I had seen him talking to a stunning redhead for most of the night.

Also, Kaden hasn’t removed his hand from my back. It’s just resting there, a light pressure against my skin.

Is he doing this without thought? Like, he put it there and forgot to move it? Or was there thought and he’s kept it there for a reason? Because if there was thought, then—

Nope. Stop right there. You’re getting carried away with yourself.

Sometimes, I really wish I had a brain that didn’t overthink and assess every angle of every situation I found myself in.

I know it’s what will make me a good psychologist—being able to think and analyze all situations for others and figure out the whys. Unfortunately for me, my brain doesn’t work for me. Everyone else’s situations I can theorize and conclude, except for my own.

“You’re quiet,” Kaden says in that deep voice of his.

I am? Yes, I am. Because I’m stuck in my head.

“Just thinking.”

“About?” is his response.

You. Me. If your hand on a small, nonsexual area of my body means anything. And also why my brain won’t shut the fuck up and be normal.

“The wedding. How lovely it was. How happy I am for Ares and Ari.”

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