“Drea, I’m sorry, I…” he stammered, covering his mouth with his hand. “I should go.”
“No, Kyle. Please, please don’t.”
“I’m sorry, I should have, shouldn’t have done that.” He turned and headed toward her front door. Opening it, he paused. “I’ll, um, see you tomorrow. I’m sorry.” He walked out, closing the door behind him, not bothering to turn around and face her.
Chapter Eleven
Sprawled out on the couch in Leona’s office, Drea tried to steady her breathing, her left arm flopped over her face, covering her eyes and blocking the light. She felt like shit, there was no other way to say it, and not just because of the headache she had from the almost-no sleep she got last night. After Kyle had made his lightspeed exit, she had just sat there on the couch for a few long moments, frozen in shock from what had just happened. He kissed her—kissed her good. Inside a part of her was so excited, it had been her fantasy come true. But then he ran away. Had she done something wrong? Was saying his name out loud as he played with her nipples the wrong thing to say?
She had texted Leona as soon as she was able to function, but knew it was already too late and that she was probably asleep. She’d considered calling Dalton, but what exactly was she gonna say? Hey, your bikini got him to notice me, but how do I get him to take it off? She couldn’t do that. Not to mention, who knows what he was doing up at Paradise Point. As long as he was keeping Staci occupied, she didn't really care. She’d tossed and turned all night, replaying the whole evening in her head over and over. He had told her that he’d been jealous, right? Or had she imagined that? When her phone dinged with Leona’s response at six am, she sprang to her feet and rushed off to meet her best friend, skipping her run on the beach in hopes that Leona could help her make some sense of it all.
“Here,” Leona said, handing Drea a cup of coffee. “Before we get any deeper into this, this is gonna require caffeine.”
“Thanks,” she muttered, sitting up enough to take a sip. Leona sat at her desk, cradling her own coffee in her hand.
“So, just to recap, he walked you home, holding your hand like fucking Prince Charming, held you in his lap and told you he wanted to go all He-Man on gym bro and then he kissed you? Then he just all of a sudden up and ran away? Just like the lawyer dude in Jurassic Park who ran into the toilet.”
“That’s not the reference I would have come up with but, yeah, that’s pretty much exactly how he ran away. Although I’m assuming he didn’t get eaten by a T-Rex on his way out.”
“Well, how was it?”
“Confusing. I have no idea what made him just stop all of a sudden.”
“No, I mean the kiss! How was it? Everything you’d thought it’d be?”
“Lee, there aren't words,” she sighed. “I have wanted to kiss him since the moment I saw him working on that yacht in Florida all those years ago. How many times have I gotten lost in thoughts of what his lips would feel like? Every time I would read one of those romance novels you give me, I would picture him doing all those dirty things to me.”
“Well, that must have made for a hell of a collection in the old rub tub.”
“You have no idea. But last night, with his tongue twisting with mine and his hands all over me, it was better than those books, better than anything my imagination has ever conjured up.”
Just then the door to the office opened swiftly, but just far enough for Dalton to squeeze himself inside.
“Morning, sugar,” he said, taking the cup of coffee out of Drea’s hand and taking a sip. “Wild night?”
“Ugh!” she exclaimed, flopping back down on the couch and throwing her arm back over her eyes. “What are you even doing here?”
“Leona texted, said to get my ass over here, so I peeled myself out of bed and here I am.”
“You said he knew,” Leona interjected.
“He does know. Well, he knows about my feelings. The rest, well, the rest is his fault. His and Staci’s.” She shot back up and pointed at him. “She’s not still in your bed, is she? Wait, I don’t wanna know, she’s a guest.”
“I slept alone last night, in my own bed. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he smirked, taking another sip out of her mug. “So, my bikini worked, huh? Had I known that was all it would take, I would have thrown that thing at you a long time ago.”
“But it didn’t work!”
“Did he or did he not kiss you?”
“He did. But then he ran away! Muttering he was sorry and that he shouldn’t have.”
“Okay, so that’s not ideal.”
“Not ideal? Dalton, I texted you to help, not to provide mediocre commentary,” Leona said. She shot a glare at him as if to say, fix it now.
“Start from the beginning, sugar. What exactly went down?” he drawled, shooting a look right back at Leona.
Drea reached over and grabbed her coffee mug back from him and took a long, slow gulp. She sighed as she started to relay the story, not sure just how much detail she should go into with Dalton. It was one thing to get graphic with Leona—they’d talked about sex since they were girls, reading romance novels and looking up things on the internet when they didn’t know what something was. When she got to the part involving her boobs, she opted for a simple “felt me up,” figuring Dalton had enough experience for all three of them combined and would get her meaning just fine.
“And he initiated the kiss?” Dalton asked when she was finished.
“Yes. We were both hovering right there, but the final push was him.”
“And he was into it?”
“He was certainly acting like he was. He shoved his hand into my bikini top and he was sporting what seemed like a decent hard-on.”
“Okay, okay,” he said, waving his hands for her to stop. “I don’t need details about another’s dude’s dick.”
“But why did he run away?” Leona asked.
“I don’t know.” Dalton shrugged.
“You don’t know?!” Leona squeaked. “You’re here as the resident expert. I could have provided insight such as I don’t know. Start proving yourself useful, or Carmella stops cleaning your bathroom.”
“Carmella cleans your bathroom?” Drea asked, looking at Dalton, confused.
“What? I pay her.”
“And that is technically against her employment contract, so I can make it stop at any point,” Leona said, looking smugly at Dalton.
“Look, I really don’t know. I know he likes you, any idiot can see that there is something between you two, and from the sounds of it, he was enjoying himself. So my guess would be that he got up in his own head and freaked himself out.”
“So, now what?” Drea asked, feeling the knots in her stomach multiply.
“Now, you leave it to me. I told you I would help and I did, and I will continue to until it’s either happily ever after or you’re a puddle of heartbreak and tears, in which case I’ll supply the ice cream and booze to Leona over here. Can you continue to trust me, just for a little longer?”