Page 26 of Lust Hate Love (Fallen Angel 4)

His question was raspy, and my cock kicked in response. Up until now, I’d either been fending Killian off or fighting my own responses. But even though I’d finally given myself permission to enjoy tonight, to enjoy him, I wasn’t about to lay it all out there…yet.

“If you think I’m about to give up all my secrets before you buy me dinner, you don’t know me at all. Oh, wait, you don’t really know me, do you? You didn’t even know I had a—”

“I know, I know, a twin brother. Are you ever going to let me live that down?”

I aimed a winning smile his way. “Just pointing out some important facts.”

“Fair enough.” Killian picked up his menu and sat back in his seat, and it was all I could do to keep the smirk from my lips.

Killian stared at the options in front of him and frowned, and not a second later he put the menu back on the table and said, “Okay, then, what else don’t I know about you?”

I lost the battle then. I knew the expression on my face now read one thing and one thing only—smug. I had one of the biggest rock stars on the planet looking at me as though he were waiting for me to impart state secrets to him, and that kind of attention was intoxicating.

Killian was intoxicating

“All of the good things,” I said. “And by that I mean the very bad things. The kind of things I shouldn’t talk about at work or…with a client.”

Killian’s eyes darkened, and just as he was about to respond, our waiter sidled up to the table.

“Good evening. My name’s David and I’ll be your waiter for the night. Are you ready to order?”

When Killian shook his head, I looked up at David and smiled. “Sorry, we’re not quite ready yet. Could you give us a few more minutes?”

“Of course, just signal me when you’re ready.”

“Will do,” I said, and when David walked away and I returned my attention to Killian, my breath all but caught in my throat.

Killian had leaned across the table toward me, and the frustration from a moment ago had now been replaced with a crackling energy. Those blue eyes were roaming over my face, and when they finally came up to lock on mine, my heart stuttered.

“Just to clarify,” Killian said in a raspy voice that did absolutely nothing to help the ache between my thighs, “how bad is bad? You see, I have a very vivid imagination, and if you don’t expand on that, who knows where my mind will go.”

Oh, I had a pretty good idea where his mind would go, and that was exactly the problem. When I got around Killian, I lost focus. Well, focus on work, anyway, and that was the very reason getting involved was a terrible idea. A super-hot one that would most certainly satisfy the both of us many times over, but terrible just the same.

I had rules for a reason, and if ever there was a time to remember that, it was now.

I shrugged. “Bad enough that if you and I were to do something, and then it all ended up on its ass, the only way I’d ever feel comfortable again would be to quit.”

“What?” Killian said, and sat back in his seat. “That’s crazy.”

“That’s the truth. Let’s say we act on this…”

“Hot-as-fuck chemistry?”

That about summed it up. “Yes. Let’s say we act on this chemistry and we spend six months in each other’s beds—then things end. How would you ever listen to me again, and take my advice seriously as opposed to personal? The answer is: you wouldn’t.”

A heavy silence settled between us as Killian stared at me as though I’d lost my mind. And maybe I had. I was sitting at dinner with the sexiest man I’d ever known and was doing my best to stop him from looking at me as though he wanted to get me somewhere naked, now.

I’d definitely lost my mind.

“Okay, first off,” Killian said. “You have us broken up and we haven’t even finished our first date yet.”

“This isn’t a date.” I knew that was a lie, even as I was saying it.

“It is so a damn date. It’s just the two of us, there’s a candle on the table, and we’re talking about you being in my bed.”

“Actually, we were talking about me not being there after we broke up.”

“In your shitty hypothetical, maybe. Want to hear my version of that story?”

No was my immediate thought, because I knew it would be too tempting. But when I didn’t immediately answer, Killian kept talking.

“In my version of that story,” he said, and then stretched one of his legs out to hook his foot around my ankle, much like he had back on the boat, “we have a kickass date tonight. I take you back to the hotel. I show you just how hot this chemistry is between us, and you stop overthinking everything.”

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