Page 36 of The Last Key
He glances over his shoulder, then turns back to me. “I think the song might’ve… scared her a bit. She left. I saw Chris outside. I think she got a ride with him.”
Chris is our local cabbie. He’s dedicated to his job and somehow always seems to appear when you need him. Apparently, that worked for Kennedy tonight.Fuck.Scaring her is the last thing I wanted. After that almost-kiss in the kitchen, I didn’t think I would.
It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters besides getting to Kennedy.
“I’ve gotta go,” I say.
“Yeah, probably a good plan.”
“Are you coming?”
“Nah. I’ll catch a ride back. Maybe call Chris,” he says with a dry laugh. Then he looks at me seriously. “Go get her.”
Without another thought, I dash for the door, running down the block and jumping into the driver’s seat of my 4Runner. Thankfully, my house is only twelve minutes from the bar. Unfortunately, that feels like an eternity. Especially as I replay every moment with Kennedy from the past few days, leading to this. Over and over I go through it all, each time ending up at the same place. I don’t understand why she’d be scared. Unless everything finally caught up toher.
Shit.
When I get to my house, I let out a sigh of relief seeing the lights on inside. Rushing out of my car, I run across the front yard and up the porch steps. My heart thrums as I swing the door open. “Kend? Kennedy? Are you here?”
“Kitchen,” she calls, like nothing at all is wrong.
Now I’m just fucking confused.
I slip off my shoes and force myself to slow down. Taking a few deep breaths, I make my way down the hall like everything is normal, and I didn’t just drive home like my pants were on fire.
When I get to the kitchen, the fridge is open, obscuring Kennedy from view for a moment. Until she closes the door and spins to face me, smiling brightly.
Oh, and she’s naked.
Stark fucking naked in my kitchen.
My brain is working overtime to comprehend everything.
She looked uncertain while I was singing.She’s naked.Then I got off the stage.She’s naked.She and Justin were arguing.She’s still naked.He said she ran out.Holy fuck, she’s naked.I raced home and then saw herstanding here naked. And now she’s strolling toward me. Her hand is on my chest and she. Is. Naked.
“Kend, what’s going on?” my voice is so high and raspy I barely recognize it. She smiles as she runs her hand down my chest. “I thought you left.”
“I did,” she says with a laugh.
“No. I thought you left because you were scared or upset.”
“Oh,” she says dramatically, her smile growing. “No. I just needed a head start. And then for you to hurry back here. Justin was playing along.”
“Oh.”Oh.I slowly run my fingers through the hair at the side of her face. “And that’s why you’re naked?”
She bites her lip. “It’s the fantasy, right? You made your move. This is mine.”
I search her eyes. “Youare the fantasy.Thisisn’t all I want. You know that, right?”
“I know,” she says quickly. “It’s not all I want, either. But it’s the fun part.” She shivers. “Or it was. I’m getting cold now.”
“Well, we can’t have that.” I quickly pull my shirt off, then put it over her head. She stares at me for a second, so I smile, finally feeling like myself again. “Put your arms in like a good girl.”
Her eyes widen slightly, but she does it, then immediately hits me with a pout.
“Why’d you do that?”
Chuckling, I say, “Two reasons. One, you just said you were cold.”
