He hesitated for half a second, as if debating with himself what his next move should be.
Then he kissed her.
Right there. In front of everyone.
His lips crushed against hers, hot and claiming, and her body responded before her brain caught up. Her hands clutched his shoulders as he pulled her in, wrapping her tightly against his chest.
She melted—just as she had done earlier. It was like she forgot all her sense of survival when he touched her.
His kiss was fire and forgiveness, frustration and all the feelings she’d never let herself feel—wrapped in one tall, maddeningly irresistible package.
A snort of laughter broke the moment, snapping her back to the fact that they weren’t alone.
“Yep,” Harvey sighed. “That’s what I saw earlier.”
Kiki jerked back, blinking in dismay as Harvey’s comment sank in. Nikos’s eyes glittered with knowledge.
He remembered—every second. Her stomach dropped.
“I… have some explaining to do.”
“Yes,” Nikos said, brushing a thumb over her bottom lip, “you do.”
He didn’t sound nearly as angry as she had expected.
Behind them, Markos and Jim spoke in unison. “Yes, please.”
Harvey just kept stroking Ms. Peabody, who rumbled louder, clearly invested in the drama.
Kiki groaned and dropped her forehead onto Nikos’s chest. “This is exactly why I should never have agreed to go on that date with you. Life was less complicated. One date and look what happens!”
She felt the rumble of his chuckle. “No blind date remorse allowed.”
She lifted her head and scowled at him. “Why not?”
“Because I had a good time. I want to remember all of it—that includes the ending. Would you like to explain why I almostdidn’t?”
She grimaced, nodded, stepped back from him, and looked around at the men watching her like she was about to deliver the evening news followed by a live explosion.
“I’m… a little strange, if you haven’t already guessed,” she muttered, wringing her hands. “Okay, maybe more than a little. My mother—” She stopped and closed her eyes for a second before she sighed and opened them again. “My mother called the things I could do… gifts.”
Harvey grinned victoriously at Jim, then Nikos. “Told you she was special.”
Nikos stood against the wall, his arms folded across his chest, and his jaw clenched so tight it ached. He listened in silence as Kiki spoke—calm, collected, and somehow even more mysterious than before.
He was trying—really trying—to wrap his head around what she was saying.
Gifts. Visions. Delicate ‘pushes’ that helped people forget what they saw.
And more… if the haunted expression in her eyes were any sign.
These weren’t things from real life. They were plot twists in paranormal and sci-fi thrillers. The kind he used to binge-watch with Markos after missions when they needed to decompress and forget the blood on their boots.
But here she was. Real. Tangible. And everything about her rattled the walls he kept around his sanity.
And the bloody tall one I thought I had around my heart,he thought ruefully as he watched her gaze flicker to his face time-after-time only for her to shy away again as she spoke.
He shot a glance at Markos, who sat forward on the edge of the couch, elbows on his knees, eyes locked on Kiki like she was the last puzzle piece of a nightmare he hadn’t known he was solving.
