Our kiss was almost bruising in its intensity, Luna’s arms winding around my neck as if she, too, was operating on pure instinct instead of what was best at this stage.
When I eventually broke the kiss, her nipples were hard under her soft pink T-shirt, her lips were swollen, and both of us were breathing a little harder than normal. I flashed her a grin and nipped at her lower lip. “See, now that’s a good, ‘hello, buddy.’ What’s with all the ‘what are you doing here’ stuff?”
“That’s not how one says hello to a buddy.” She tried to level me with a glare, but it just made me laugh.
While Luna could be pretty damn fierce when she wanted to be, right now, she just kind of looked like a kitten who had slipped on some fake claws. We were still so close together that I ran my nose along the length of hers. “It is when you’ve got the kind of relationship we do.”
She rolled her eyes and shrugged. “Fair enough. What are you doing here, though? Or did you just get tired of waiting and decided to come claim a quickie in my arrangement room?”
“You know, I think that would be a way more fun arrangement to use that room for, but no. Well, it’s not what I came for but if you’re offering…”
“Oh my God, I wasn’t offering.” She laughed and put both of her hands on my chest. “It’s just that you don’t usually come by when we don’t have plans.”
“I was kind of hoping we were about to have plans, though.” I took a deep breath and realized that we were standing much too close together. If a customer came in and saw this, Luna would never forgive herself for her lapse in professionalism.
“How so?” she asked.
Taking a step back, I ran a hand through my hair and forced my racing heart to calm the fuck down as I kept my eyes on those blue ones of hers.
Fuck. Tropical ocean blue. I wonder if that’s a thing. I—
“Cyrus?”
I cleared my throat. “Peter and Jenny have invited me to dinner tonight. They asked me to bring you because they know you’ve been helping me with everything. They want to say thanks.”
Luna paused, a guarded look entering her eyes. “Are you sure going won’t make it weird between us? I mean, they know we’re not dating or anything like that, right?”
“Absolutely. They know you’re just a friend and that you’re helping me. It won’t make things weird. I promise.”
“Okay then.” A smile spread slowly across her lips, her eyes lighting up as she relaxed. “It would actually be pretty cool to finally meet them. I feel like I know them already and it’s going to be so much easier to help you once I get a feel for who they really are.”
“Great. They’re really excited to meet you, too. I’ll pick you up at six thirty?” Why the fuck does my heart keep racing like that?
Luna’s smile spread even wider. “Sure, but would it make any difference if I reminded you that you really didn’t have to come pick me up all the time?”
“Nope. I’ll see you tonight.” Before she could argue or my heart could randomly explode from whatever the fuck it was pulling in my chest, I got the hell out of there.
After spending the rest of the day checking out some potential new investments and having lunch with Jimmy to discuss the growth of his business, I went back home to get ready to pick Luna up.
Despite having gotten out of the shower literally two minutes before I put on my shirt, my palms were sweaty and my heart was thudding again. Although it wasn’t quite racing like it had earlier, it was definitely up to something in there.
Scowling at myself as I thought back to the last time I’d felt like this, I realized that it had been when I’d taken the woman who had eventually become my wife on a first date. Fuck that.
I’d planned on dressing down for dinner with my brother and his fiancée, but I donned another suit instead. It was better this way, almost like it would help me keep my guard up around her.
Though fuck even knows why that’s necessary. I shouldn’t have been feeling any of these things at all.
Since I couldn’t bring myself to call dinner off, considering that they were all really excited to meet one another, and I also still couldn’t quite convince myself to text someone else to come over after, I decided to just roll with it. Whatever it was, it would blow over. That much, I was one hundred percent sure of.
When I got to Luna’s apartment building, she was waiting again. A pretty, electric-blue sundress brought out the color of her eyes and complemented the shiny, loose waves of her hair. Oh God, did I really just think that?
“You’re looking ridiculously smart for a dinner at your brother’s house,” she teased when I got out of the car to open the door for her. “Should I run back upstairs and grab some evening wear? Maybe my ‘heart of the ocean’ necklace?”
“You look perfect.” The words were out before I could stop them.
Luna’s forehead creased on a soft frown before she laughed it off. “Sure. So perfect. You look good, though, I’ll give you that. You wear these suits so well.”
“Thanks.” I brushed a whisper of a kiss against her cheek and felt her shiver against me. I knew it wasn’t because she was cold, though. Whatever chemistry had been brewing between us since day one seemed to have matured into something much more… dangerous.
Luna climbed into the passenger seat without another word, turning to face me once we got on the road. “Peter and Jenny, what are they like? I know we talk about them a lot, but what should I be expecting from them tonight?”
“A ton of questions. Definitely. But they’re nice people, so they won’t make you feel like you’re facing the inquisition.”
It was true, but then why did I feel like I might be after this? Peter knew Luna was just a friend. I’d made it clear to him again when he’d called with the invitation, but I knew he was hopeful my relationship with Luna would turn into something more.
Between the two us, Peter always had been the more optimistic one. Even when I’d sworn off all women just after the divorce, he’d been the one insisting it was just a temporary thing. He had this idea in his head that one day, I’d meet the right woman for me.
Given everything he knew about Luna and about how she was helping me, I suspected he thought she was the elusive and mysterious “one” he was more determined than ever I would eventually find.
Considering how I felt like I was about to introduce her to my mother when we pulled up to his house, I knew I was going to have to be careful to hide my nerves. If Peter so much as saw a tremor or a bead of sweat on me, he’d go into matchmaker mode faster than I could even blink.
That would be a very, very bad thing for him to do. Luna still hadn’t answered me about Italy, hadn’t slept with me in a week, and was a little more skittish about seeing me than she used to be. If Peter pushed things now, I might just lose her.
Why the fuck does that thought bother me so much?
Chapter 23
Luna
I’d lied to April.
Well, not lied lied, but just lied. Sort of.
It was true that I wasn’t under any delusions about getting more with Cyrus. We had what we had and that was fine. What I had fibbed a little about was making it sound like I didn’t sometimes want more from him.