He was obviously teasing her, but the answer wasyes.
She hoped her cheeks weren’t red, because she was beginning to feel very flushed. She sighed and shook her head as she once again tried to remove the jacket. “You’ll be cold, you just have a hoodie.”
He lifted his hoodie and undershirt and pressed her hand to his upper torso. She sucked in a startled breath.
His eyes locked with hers as he held her hand in place. “I run hot.”
Yes. Yes, you do. He wasn’t just warm, his skin washotto the touch. Not only in temperature but in form as well. Of course, she knew he was a professional athlete, but the ripples of muscles beneath her touch were very hot in a non-temperature way.
A shiver of tingles rushed through her entire body as she yanked her hand back as if she’d just touched a stove. He grinned down at her, knowing exactly the effect his body had just had.
She pulled his coat tighter around her, and his scent engulfed her. This thing between them was dangerous. Everything with Niko felt real. Maybe it was because she’d had a crush on him for so long, or maybe it was because of her self-imposed single status and the fact that it had been years since she’d been kissed or touched by a man. Whatever the reason, what was happening between them felt good, it felt real, and she needed to remember it wasn’t.
No matter what the tabloids said, Niko was a good man, she believed that in her soul. But when it came to women, hewaswho he was. Just the week before he’d had a threesome in Utah with Andrada and Camille, two women she knew from different events she’d been at over the years. That was not the sort of man who wanted to settle down and have a family in a small town, which was all Tiana wanted. She was not a threesome girl, or an open relationship girl, or whatever other kinds of arrangements he had with women in his life. The biggest freak flag she had to fly was that she’d always been curious about having sex in public places. Had she ever acted on it? No. She was too scared to do it. So, even that was just her fantasy freak flag.
An image popped into her mind of Niko and her being intimate at the festival. Him pulling her behind one of the buildings where no one could see them, but they could still hear people passing by. She didn’t have a voyeuristic fantasy, it was more the thrill of maybe getting caught, not actually getting caught or being seen by anyone, so even her freak flag was vanilla.
She felt Niko staring at her, and the entire right side of her body tingled with a flush. She was embarrassed even though she knew he couldn’t actually read her mind.
Once they reached the dirt path that led through the wooded area to the small cabin she was renting, she pulled out herflashlight. They were both quiet as they walked along. If it were reversed, she would be sure that she was being led to her death.
“Do you walk home at night, by yourself, a lot?” he asked.
“I have mace and a stun gun.” She patted her bag as she glanced up at him.
His jaw tightened.
“And it’s not that far.”
“What happened to your Range Rover?”
She glanced up at him. How had he known she’d had a Range Rover? Maybe he’d seen her around town in it, or maybe he knew because it was one of the things she’d been awarded in her divorce settlement. Everything about it was online. It was so highly publicized thanks to Brock claiming she was a gold digger. He didn’t mention she’d paid for the car with her own money that she’d made teaching yoga. Brock had not paid a dime for that vehicle, and although she was eager to tell Niko this, she worried it would seem defensive.
“I sold it,” she told him.
“To get what?”
“Nothing.”
“You don’t have a vehicle?”
“No, this is better for the environment.” She gave Niko the same story she’d told everyone else who had questioned her about her transportation, or lack thereof. In the four months she’d been touting that tale, she’d never once felt a shred of guilt because, honestly, it was no one else’s business. So why was this the first time she had a pang of something in her chest and the strangest urge to tell Niko exactly what was going on, like he actually cared? Like anyone did.
The reason she’d sold her SUV didn’t really matter to anyone, not really. Andno onewould understand why she had millions of dollars in a bank account that she absolutely would not touch or use for herself or Pops. Unless she had to for Pops. Butshe’d be homeless before she spent a dime of Brock’s money on herself.
They came to the clearing where her cabin was located. At the edge of the tree line, at least ten yards from the cabin, she turned around and faced Niko and began to take off his coat. “Okay, thanks.”
“Keep it.” He pulled the jacket back up onto her shoulders.
“No, you have to walk back.”
He ignored her and glanced past her. “What’s on your door?”
“My door?”
Nothing should be on her door. Sheneverhad packages delivered to the cabin for several reasons. Thieves in wildlife creature form had absconded with more than one of her deliveries and being a single woman living in a desolate area with no neighbors within a blood-curdling-scream shot, the fewer people who knew where she resided, the better. And the third and final was a hodgepodge of several reasons, a reason stew, if you will. She had no storage in her four-hundred-square-foot space, the trash was more expensive out at the cabin than it was at the shop, and she liked to only have things with good energy in her living area. She was very in tune with places having tangible value to senses and memories, which can be a good thing, but it can also be a horrible thing, so she only brought things into her space with positive energy.
Niko stepped around her and started toward the door. Tiana followed beside him, and they arrived on her porch at the same time. A large bouquet of flowers sat in front of her door. As soon as she got close enough to see them, there was no need for her to look at a card, she knew they were from Brock. Flowers were his go-to, and for some reason he was convinced she loved lilies. She didn’t mind them, but they weren’t even in her top five flowers.
