I swallow. “That doesn’t make it okay.”
He exhales softly, brushing his thumb along my jaw. “I know.”
That almost undoes me.
“I’m not here to sneak around,” he continues. “I’m not here to make this messy. I just,” He hesitates, rare and honest. “I want to take you out. Tomorrow night. Dinner. Somewhere that’s not this house. I want to actually get to know you.”
I laugh under my breath, a shaky sound. “You’re insane.”
“Probably.”
“And you think that fixes the fact that I don’t know your name?”
His mouth curves. “Miles is who matters. Friends, family, and everyone in between know me as Miles. But since it seems important to you. My name by birth is Dixon Hardison.”
The name lands heavier than it should. “Dixon,” I repeat more to myself than him. He nods. “And you already know mine.” I add the obvious. I look away, my chest tight. “I’m here for Josie, for Journey. I can’t complicate things.”
“I know why you’re here,” he whispers gently. “That’s part of why I’m asking to take you out and not just showing up and taking you.”
I don’t answer because this is insanity. Normal people don’t just get taken, literally taken out to dinner. Then again, normal people don’t get held at gun point, take a man home, stitch him up, to later sleep with him. Nothing about Dixon “Miles” Hardison is normal. Which only makes my curiosity for how good dinner might be climb even higher. I nod just once, my body answering before my mind can stop me.
He smiles, satisfied but not smug. “Tomorrow,” he says. “I’ll pick you up at five.”
When he leaves, the house feels different. Charged. Like something has shifted. I don’t sleep much after that.
In the morning, Josie catches me staring into my coffee like it owes me answers.
“You look like hell,” she remarks cheerfully.
“Thanks.”
She squints at me. “You didn’t sleep.”
“I slept,” I lie. “Just lightly.”
She studies me a second longer, then grins. “You gonna tell me why Miles was here last night?”
My coffee nearly goes everywhere. “What?”
“Oh, please,” she states with a dramatic wave of her hands. “Raff told me he stopped by when I heard a noise and woke up. He didn’t say why, but I saw your face this morning. So if Miles was here and my man didn’t get out of bed to see him, and you got this look like you want the floor to swallow you whole, I think Miles was here for you.”
I close my eyes. “I need to tell you something. And you have to promise not to judge.”
Her grin widens as she nods with enthusiasm. “I love when you say that.”
“Miles is the one-night stand,” I blurt it out.
The silence lasts exactly half a second. Josie squeals. “You are kidding me.”
“Um, nope, not kidding. This is somehow my life. I get reckless and do something out of character and boom, life puts it right back in my face.”
“Oh my God,” she says, clapping her hands. “Oh my God. Danae.”
“I don’t know how this happened,” I say, panic rising. “I didn’t know he was, I swear. I didn’t know he knew you. I didn’t know any of this.”
She grabs my hands. “This is amazing.”
“No, it’s overwhelming.”
