Casanova(44)

The back door scratched a little as it opened, and Lani’s head jerked toward it. “Hello?”

“Hey.” My voice was quiet as I stepped outside. It took me all of ten seconds to cross the courtyard from the door. “You okay?”

She looked up at me. “Did the light wake you? I’m sorry.”

“No. I couldn’t sleep.” I sat down next to her.

“Me either.” Her smile was sad. “How did you know I was here?”

I pointed up to the window where my bedroom was. “My room. I saw the light, checked it out, and saw you.”

“Ah. Sorry.”

“What for?”

She shrugged and let go of her legs. Her feet fell to the patio beneath the bench silently. “Getting you out of bed? I don’t know.”

“Gotta admit, kitten, I’d rather you got me into bed.”

She dropped her chin to her chest, but the action couldn’t hide her smile or mute her quiet laugh. “How did I know you’d say that?”

“Maybe you were a mind reader in another life.”

“Or you’re entirely too predictable.”

I turned sideways on the bench and rested my arm along the back. “Predictable? I’m not predictable. I’m pretty much the most unpredictable person in the entire damn town.”

She paused and tilted her head to the side. “Fine—your thoughts of the filthy kind are entirely way too predictable. Is that better?”

“Probably as good as it’s gonna get, huh?”

Lani smiled, turning her face toward me. It was the first damn genuine smile I’d seen from her all day, and I knew it was genuine because of the way it reached her eyes. They lit up like the night sky, sparking and shining back at me.

They made my heart beat fucking fast.

“Yep,” she said. “That’s as good as it’s gonna get. Sorry, Casanova.”

“You should smile like that more often.” The words spilled out of me before I could stop them.

“Like what?” She reached up and slowly tucked her hair behind her ear.

Fuck it, I was in deep now. “The way you just did.”

The urge to touch her tingled the tips of my fingers, and the weak son of a bitch that I was, I gave in.

I trailed my thumb along the curve of her lower lip from one corner of her mouth to the other. My gaze stayed fixed on her soft, plump pout, even as a tiny gap, barely big enough for a breath, appeared between her lips.

“It was...real. And your eyes...It reminded me how pretty you are when you’re not mad at me.”

She smiled even though I still touched her. It was a much smaller smile, but it had the exact same effect. Even as she dipped her head and tried to hide it.

I didn’t let her. I tilted her head right back up and cast my gaze over her face. I wanted to commit every inch of that expression of hers to memory, because let’s face it—I probably wasn’t going to damn well see it again, was I?

Lani didn’t pull back from me as I studied her. She looked right up at me, her make-up free eyelashes long and dark. A smudge of gray make-up was lingering beneath the outside corner of her left eye, and there was a smudge of something on her right eyelid, but the freshness of her skin—even if she was visibly tired—was strangely mesmerizing.

I wanted to look more.

I wanted to search her bare face until I knew every single little imperfection that was there, because as I looked at her, I knew they all added up to someone so gut-wrenchingly beautiful that I was completely and utterly screwed.

“Jesus,” I breathed. “I want to kiss you so badly right now.”

Her throat bobbed. “That’s not a good idea,” she whispered, her voice thick.

“I know, but I want to anyway.”

She turned her face right away from me. Her hair fell free from its position behind her ear, forming a thick curtain between us.

I dipped my head and rubbed my hand over my mouth. Tiny goosebumps had erupted over her nearly-bare shoulders, and god, I wanted to rub them away. But I didn’t. I did the right thing and said, “Are you cold?”

“I’m fine.”

She was such a bad liar.

I shook out my balled-up sweater from my lap and draped it over her shoulders. She inhaled loudly, but the action was enough to make her turn back to face me.

“Thank you,” she said quietly.

“You’re welcome.” I half-smiled and looked out at the courtyard. “So what have you been looking at out here?”

“Nothing. Just...thinking. About what happened...could have happened...tonight.”

Anger fizzed in my gut again. “If you talk about what could have happened, I’m going to get irrationally angry again and then there’s no chance of hell of me sleeping tonight.”

“You haven’t been to sleep tonight?”

I stared at her. “Not a wink.”

“Sorry,” she said. Like it was her fault. Which it partially was. “I just can’t stop thinking about what would have happened if you weren’t there. So, feel free to attend as many girl’s nights as you like.”

That made me laugh. “Or have your girl’s nights at home for a while.”

“That could work.” She wrung her fingers in her lap. “Brett?”