Wrapped Up in You (Heartbreaker Bay, #8)(36)

She wanted this, whatever this was. She wanted to take him out of his own head, wanted to see him smile that slow, sexy smile he had, wanted to experience Kel when he’d let loose and was having fun. Or better yet, lost in pleasure.

That last thought had her tripping over her own two feet. She would’ve gone down too, except Kel caught her, held on to her until she got her bearings.

They stood at the center of the courtyard now, right in front of the beautiful hundred-plus-year-old fountain, the water tinkling into the copper bowl the only sound in the cold night.

She stared into the water, wondering which coin was hers. Kel’s hands were still on her hips, his eyes locked on hers.

“What?” she whispered, careful not to move because she liked the feel of the heat of him warming her from the inside out.

He pulled a quarter from his pocket and she froze. “Um . . .”

“Do you know the legend of the fountain?” he asked.

“You mean the lie that harbors false hope? Yes, and put that quarter away.”

He laughed. “So you know if you make a wish for true love, that true love will find you.”

“Have you ever noticed how legends and fairy tales are really sort of nightmares?” she asked. “And anyway, I don’t believe in true love. Plus I’ve already made a wish—sort of.”

He went brows up.

“I can’t tell you,” she said. “Or it won’t come true. But it wasn’t for love.” Nope, all she’d asked for was the ability to believe. Believe in love.

Her aunt Cathy’s words swam in her head.

Be smart.

Be brave.

Be vulnerable . . .

Kel tossed the coin up and down in his palm. “If you already wished for something, then you know you’ve got nothing to worry about. Especially if you don’t believe.”

But . . . did she truly not believe? Or was she just afraid? “What I know is that it’s stupid to tempt fate,” she said.

This got a chuckle. “If you could see your face right now.” He tossed the quarter into the fountain and she stopped breathing.

He smiled. “Before you stroke out, I wished for Harper to have true love in her life.”

She nearly sagged with relief and tore her gaze off the rapidly vanishing quarter to stare at him. “That was mean.”

He just smiled.

“Like the meanest of all the mean.”

“So I take it you wouldn’t make a wish for one of your family members.”

She turned back to the fountain and pretended to be fascinated by it.

“You know, you never say much about your family,” he said quietly.

“Because we’ve known each other all of a week.”

His mouth quirked and he gave another slow shake of his head. “You do that a lot, deflect with sarcasm and wit. Your mom’s a lounge singer. Your brother’s bad at keeping in touch. Tell me more, Trouble.”

Again her heart started with a heavy drumming. She didn’t do this. Not here, not now. Not ever, actually. She didn’t share, and he was right, instead she deflected and she was good at it. “I thought I was going to show you a good time.”

“You are. This first.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s nothing exciting. Just a normal upbringing, really.” If normal was hell on earth . . .

“There’s no such thing as a normal upbringing,” he said. “You were pretty adamant about me talking to my mom. Tell me more about yours.”

She could hear her own heartbeat in her ears. “Nothing to say, other than what you know. I left home when I was sixteen.”

This didn’t make him happy. “What about school?”

“I tested out and got my GED,” she said.

“How did you survive? Did you go to other family members?”

“No. And I did okay.” If okay was being scared and alone all the time.

He shook his head, eyes troubled for her. “I can’t imagine how rough that was for a young girl. You mentioned that your dad wasn’t around,” he said.

“Nope. Not at all.”

“You never knew him?”

“No. I could pass him on the street and I wouldn’t even know it.” And when Kel just looked at her, eyes solemn and sympathetic, she admitted something she’d never said out loud before. “I used to look at faces in crowds to see if I resembled any of them.”

“His loss,” Kel said with a quiet intensity that made her throat feel tight. He slid a hand down her arm to entangle their fingers, which he used to tug her into him. “I’m going to kiss you now, Ivy. Tell me if that’s okay.”

She stared up at his mouth. “Are you always going to ask me that question before you kiss me?”

He pressed into her, that long, hard, hot body against hers. “Until I can read you better and be sure of what you want, yes.”

Why did she find that incredibly sexy, as in maybe one of the sexiest things she’d ever heard? Her hands found their way to his chest and slowly slid up. “I know I’m not very easy to read,” she whispered, going up on tiptoe so that the words ghosted over his lips. And then, against her best judgment, she whispered one more word. “Yes . . .”

Kel framed her face with his hands. Ivy didn’t dare breathe for fear that it wouldn’t happen, because at some point in the past sixty seconds, she’d come to want his kiss more than anything she could think of. It was an ache working its way through her, twisting her up into a ball of hunger and desire.