In the Zone (Portland Storm 5) (10 page)

He didn’t answer me right away, so I craned my head around to look at him. He shrugged. “Garrett, my younger brother, was a dancer. I picked up on a bit of it, I guess, from watching him.”

“You really never danced, though?” That was what he’d claimed during my class, but it was still difficult for me to believe. Cole Paxton had picked up on the movement about as quickly as any student I’d had in four years of teaching ballroom dance, and the speed Keith had learned it made Cole seem like a slow and plodding learner.

“Nah,” Keith said. “Our younger brother, Shane, and I were too busy playing hockey to mess with that. We just watched a little. From the sidelines.” His eyebrows drew together again, as they had during dinner anytime we had started talking about his family, or really anything to do with him at all. “Did your brother and sister ever take dance? Or were they too busy teaching and CEO’ing to join you?”

And, exactly the way he had every time we’d been about to start talking about him or his family, he deftly changed the subject back to me. His avoidance to talk about himself ought to make me even less inclined than I already was to get into any sort of relationship with him, but for some reason, it did the opposite. I wanted to know why he was so desperate to keep that part of himself private. I wanted to know what was so painful that it caused that pinched crease on his forehead. I might try to hide my body, but he was hiding so much more than that.

“My sister danced some,” I said after a moment, hoping he wouldn’t realize how much more curious I grew every time he refused to talk about himself. That knowledge might make him clam up even more. “Although Michelle was more into jazz and tap than ballroom, like I was. Ian didn’t ever want anything to do with physical stuff. He always had his nose buried in a book.”

“What kinds of books?”

“Sci-fi, mainly. Anything to do with space and he was all over it.”

“So why is he running a company instead of working for NASA or something like that?”

I laughed. “Because he spent too much time reading his sci-fi books and not enough time studying actual science.” He’d always had more of a creative mind than a logical mind, much like mine. He was an artist in his own right, but his artistry played out in boardrooms and conference calls.

A breeze picked up along the bank, and my hair went flying. I shivered visibly, unable to fight off the biting cold.

Keith stared at me, his amber eyes almost puncturing my skin with their intensity. The crowd around us became more animated before he spoke, though, and he looked up the river again. “It’s starting. They’re here. Why don’t you lean against me to warm up while we watch?”

I still wasn’t sure what we were going to watch, so I shot my head around to get a look. A train of ships was making its way down river, but these weren’t just any old ships. They’d been decorated in lights—the same sort of lights people used to decorate their houses for the holidays—and were moving along slowly so that everyone could get a really good look as they traveled down the river.

“It’s like a parade,” I murmured, trying to ward off another shiver.

“It’s the Christmas Ships Parade. They do it every year, going along different parts of the river on different nights. It’s been going on for decades.”

I became fixated on one ship, the fourth one to move into my line of sight. Done up in cheerful, colorful lights, it had Charlie Brown, and Snoopy on his red doghouse, and the pathetic but perfect Christmas tree from
A Charlie Brown Christmas
. All of a sudden, I felt like I was ten years old again.

“We watched it every year,” I said, pointing at the ship. “It was one of our traditions. Whatever night it came on TV, that was the night that we would put up our own Christmas tree. Mom had us make garlands out of popcorn and cranberries and other things like that, and Ian ate so much of the popcorn that she had to pop at least three times as much as we needed.”

“And you?” Keith inched closer to me on the blanket, his arm coming around to settle on my waist. It would be really easy to lean into him like he wanted me to, to soak up all the warmth he had to offer. “Did you steal popcorn while you made Christmas garlands?”

I shook my head, still staring out at the Charlie Brown ship that would pass us by all too soon. “Maybe a little. We all did. But I didn’t eat much of it. I was always worried about the things I ate.” Even then, when I was a little girl, long before I had thyroid issues, I’d paid so much attention to every bite I’d put into my mouth that it was almost criminal. Food and I had always had a testy relationship.

“Hmm,” he said, and when I faced him, he was scowling.

“Hmm what?”

“Is that why you only ordered a salad tonight? I couldn’t be sure if you were trying not to be an expensive date or if you were trying not to eat too much.” He didn’t sound terribly impressed with either possible reason.

“It’s not a bad thing to watch what I eat.”

“And it’s not a good thing to obsess about your weight.”

I spun around again to watch the parade. The bright lights floating along the river were a lot nicer to think about than the idea that he thought I was obsessing about my weight. Ordering a salad for dinner didn’t make a person obsessed.

“Brie?”

I felt him inch closer, at once thankful for the added warmth and angry that he was invading my space. The Charlie Brown ship was almost out of sight, and I chose to focus on that instead of my discomfort.

“Did you and your brothers watch it each year?” I asked. “
A Charlie Brown Christmas
?” The question had hardly passed my lips before I realized it was unlikely he’d give me a straight answer.

“We were more into
A Christmas Story
,” he said a moment later, surprising me that he’d answered at all. “I can’t tell you how many times I asked my parents for an official Red Ryder carbine-action two-hundred-shot range model air rifle.”

“Did your mom tell you that you’d shoot your eye out?”

“She was more worried that I’d shoot my brothers’ eyes out.”

A ship with Santa and his reindeer, with Rudolph and his glowing red nose at the bow, drifted into view right as another gust of wind blew over us, and I shivered violently. It was too cold, and all my efforts to keep from getting too close to Keith were just keeping me colder than was necessary.

“You’d be a lot warmer if you’d scoot over here, you know.”

“I know.”

“I’m not going to eat you alive.” He leaned closer. “At least not until I have you naked again. Then I’ll eat—”

“There are kids nearby,” I hissed at him, but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. No one had done anything like that with me in a long time—talking dirty, making sexy promises.

“I won’t do it with kids around,” he said silkily, his mouth right by my ear, blowing air on my cheek so warm that it seemed to filter all the way through my body and heat me straight down to my toes. “I’ll get you alone first, somewhere filled with candlelight so your hair gleams like copper, and I’ll peel away all your clothes, piece by piece, until there’s nothing left for you to hide yourself with. No way for you to cover up how exquisite you are. How perfect. And then I’ll take my time showing you how beautiful I find you.”

My body shuddered again, but it wasn’t a shiver this time. At least not from the cold. More from anticipation. My head might not be fully on board with taking this any further than a single date, but my body didn’t seem willing to comply with that rationale. Not if my shallow breathing and rapid pulse were any indication.

“Slide over here with me,” he urged me, and the next thing I knew, that was exactly what I was doing.

I’d barely gotten close enough that he could put his arm fully around me when he shifted his position, sliding his legs on either side of mine and putting both his arms around my body so I was tucked in against his chest.

“Now that’s nice,” he murmured in my ear. “Not as nice as it’ll be when I can take these clothes off you, but it’ll do for now.”

For the next half hour or so, we stayed like that—Keith wrapped around me like a warm cocoon, me leaning back against his chest—watching the parade of Christmas ships float by us. All the while, he kept running his hands over my arms and whispering naughty promises in my ears. We were pretty much at the end of the line for the parade, so it wasn’t long before the ships circled around and headed back in the other direction. The two of us stayed put until the last one in the line, one that had green lights streaming down from a tall mast in the center and a golden star on top, had drifted out of view.

Everyone around us got up and headed for their cars, kids up high on their fathers’ shoulders and teenagers dragging their feet to stay behind for a few minutes longer. Even with all of them leaving, and with how cold it was, neither Keith nor I seemed in any big hurry to go.

Without so many people surrounding us, he stopped whispering innuendos in my ears. In fact, he fell kind of silent, holding me so close I could hear each of his breaths. A few times I’d thought I heard his heart beating, but I couldn’t be sure if I was actually hearing it or if I just felt it so intensely that my brain decided I was hearing it, too.

When only a few other stragglers remained on the riverbank, he rubbed his hands over my upper arms, warming them with friction even through the added layer of my coat. “I should probably take you home now, huh?”

“Yeah. Probably.” Home would be warmer than here, but it wouldn’t feel anywhere close to as cozy. BC and Richie would be all up in my business, of course, but two cats snuggling me in bed couldn’t come close to comparing with the sensation of having a man’s body—Keith’s body—wrapped all around mine.

“Yeah.” He leaned his head down, and his nose bumped the crown of my head. His breath filtered through my hair, once again sending heat all over my scalp before it dissipated entirely too soon. “I should. Take you home.”

Neither of us got up to go, though. The moonlight shimmering on the river, the gentle lapping sounds as it flowed, the stark contrast in temperature between the places we were touching and every other inch of my body—all of it combined in such a way that I didn’t want to spoil the moment. I didn’t want it to end.

It was only when we were completely alone out there and one of the few clouds in the sky drifted in front of the moon that I yawned, jostling us out of our moment of perfect tranquility.

He finally started to move, standing and stretching before reaching down to help me up. “So I guess this is it, huh? Time for Cinderella to go home before some fairy godmother turns me into a mouse or something.” He put his arm around my waist and drew me in to his side. “Or I have another idea.”

The sexy tone was back in his voice, making me tremble in anticipation. My breath caught in the back of my throat, and I couldn’t speak even to ask what his idea might be. I was pretty sure I knew what it was. And I was ninety-nine percent positive that I would agree to it, if he would only say the words.

“I could take you back to my place. You could stay with me tonight.”

A
LL THREE OF
my dogs went crazy the second I opened the door to my house so I could let Brie inside, barking and running straight for her. There wasn’t a small dog among them, so I stepped in front of her, body-blocking them. Just because she had cats, that was no reason for me to assume that she wanted to be run over by a pack of dogs, even if I knew they were harmless and just wanted to make friends.

“Back!” I commanded.

Dexter and Shadow took a few steps backward, their tongues lolling from the excitement of having a visitor, but Pepper whimpered and put her front paws up on my chest. She was the youngest and smallest of the three, and she seemed to think she was still a puppy and could get away with behaviors she knew were unacceptable—like this one. The sad thing was, she did get away with it more often than not. Anytime I’d try to reprimand her for it, she’d give me her big, sad puppy eyes, and I’d laugh and give in. I probably should stop doing that, but fuck if I knew how to do that.

Granted, calling Pepper the smallest wasn’t saying a whole lot about her size. She was some sort of border collie mix, and on the large side at that. Dexter was a gray German shepherd, and Shadow was a huge black Labrador retriever, but both of my boys had much better manners than Pepper. As if to prove my point, she dropped her front paws down to the floor and tried to nose her way past me so she could greet Brie—most likely with slobbery kisses. I’d much rather be the one to give Brie those myself.

“Pepper! Back.” I angled my body to keep her from going where she wanted, bumping into Brie in the process. “Sorry,” I said. “Just try to ignore her. She’ll calm down in a minute.”

“You really think I’m going to be able to ignore an animal?”

At least she sounded more amused than afraid.

I still couldn’t quite believe she’d agreed to come back to my place with me. I mean, this was definitely what I’d wanted. But throughout our date, she’d continually gone hot and cold with me. I wasn’t sure where she stood about the relationship I wanted to build with her. All I knew was that I wanted her more now than I had when I’d first met her, particularly because now that I was getting to know who she really was, I only found her more intriguing.