“I’m here. I’m home. You’ve fulfilled your contract with my pushy sister. You can go.”
“I’m to give her a full report, and it is to include you taking off your boots and either getting into a hot bath or crawling into bed.”
“For the love of Pete,” I said. “She told you that?”
“I’m just a law-abiding citizen doing what the local law tells me to do. You don’t want me to break the law, do you, Laney?”
“Brown-noser,” I mumbled.
“What?”
“Come on in, citizen,” I said with all the sarcasm I could shovel. “And watch the amazing Delaney Reed take off her shoes.”
I opened my front door, strolled in to my living room. I was pretty sure he was laughing at me.
“You should really lock your door. All sorts of people could just walk in to the place.”
“Don’t I know it.” I turned around, held my arms out to either side. “Ta-da! I am here. I am home. And…” I held up one finger then toed off my boots and kicked them to one side. “I am de-booted.” I grinned. “Now you and my sister can get out of my hair, okay?”
“Almost.”
“Almost?”
“There’s one more thing.”
I tipped my head back and groaned. “It’s illegal to shoot siblings, right?”
“Only inside state lines.” He crossed the distance between us in three easy strides.
And then his arm was around my back, his other hand slowly rising to the side of my face, fingers tucking back in my hair to curl at the nape of my neck.
“Just in case a workplace romance doesn’t work out, I thought we could start here.” His gaze held mine. I couldn’t move. Didn’t want to move. All the sound inside me went silent, still.
Ryder was warm—hot, his jacket open so I could feel the heat of his body even through the coat I wore.
When I didn’t resist, he lowered his mouth, softly, gently.
His lips, warm with the taste of rain, found mine.
Everything in me went upside down and the world somersaulted into deep water.
I was suspended there, drowning there. My only lifeline: the man who had swept the world out from beneath me.
Friends.
Who was I kidding?
This was not a friendly kiss. This was passion.
This was Ryder.
Before I could understand it, before I could sort the truths of him from the fantasies, he quietly pulled away.
Hands still holding me, gaze locked on my eyes. On me.
“That goodnight kiss was my idea. Not your sister’s. Just in case you weren’t sure.”
I nodded. Had to swallow to remember how to make words come out of my mouth. “Good. Great. Good to know.”
