Page 54 of False Start

Kyle slid his hand down the inside of my arm, threading his fingers with mine. I stared at where he held my hand until the moment he tugged me away, and then I smiled over my shoulder at the girls, giving them a wave.

As soon as I turned around, I heard one of them squeal, and then they were chattering away — and there was no need to guess justwhothey were talking about.

“You survived,” Kyle said when we rounded out of view and were walking toward the bank of elevators. He didn’t drop my hand, even though no one was around to see us. “Sorry about all that. My friends are… a lot,” he said on a smile that told me he loved that about them.

I’d only been in their presence a half hour, and already I understood why.

“They’re…” I smiled, shaking my head as we stepped into the elevator.

“Crazy? Overbearing?”

“Lovely,” I said, looking up at him. “I’ve… I’ve never had anything like that.”

His smile slipped at my admission, his brows furrowing together. Then, the elevator doors slid closed, muting the noise from the outside world as it shot us up toward our floor.

And the moment we were alone, it felt like all the oxygen had been left in the lobby.

I was suddenly very aware of how close we stood, of how good he smelled, at how my lips still tingled with the memory of his pressed against them.

Kyle’s gaze dropped to where he still held my hand, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. Then, his eyes flicked back up to me.

He made no move to break the contact.

“That was some kiss down there,” he said, arching a brow. His smile returned when my cheeks burned at his words, and I could only imagine how red my face was.

I wanted to bury it in his chest like I did before, but instead, I covered it with my free hand on a groan.

“Too much?”

“Not at all,” he said quickly. “I’m just surprised by the gusto without any practice.”

I dropped my hand, glaring up at him with a teasing smile. “You say that like we haven’t kissed before.”

“We haven’t in years, and never like that.”

Those words hung between us for only a split second before the elevator doors opened.

Kyle tugged me out, still holding my hand.

“Well, I’m proud of you,” I said, hoping to lighten the tension threatening to suffocate me.

“Proud?” Kyle asked as he thumbed a card out of the small envelope he had in his hand. He still didn’t drop mine as he did.

“Yeah,” I said, lowering my voice to a playful whisper. “When we were younger, you couldn’t kiss me without popping a boner. And look at you now.”

I nudged his ribs with the tease, which made Kyle’s jaw hit the floor before he barked out a laugh.

“You’re going to pay for that comment,” he promised.

And even though we both laughed, goosebumps swept over me, my clearly disturbed mind running through all the ways I wouldn’t mind him making me pay…

But his laugh died as soon as he opened the door to our room, and when I followed his gaze, my smile slid off my face like a runny egg.

It was a beautiful room, spacious and modern with soft jazz playing from a speaker on one of the nightstands. We had a view of the city, the mountains stretching behind it in the distance.

But there was a real big problem.

Because it only had one bed.