Page 88 of Spiced!

“There was a situation.”

“What situation?”

“A traffic-related one, very serious, lasted precisely four minutes,” I said, and pulled out of the parking lot.

Adrian settled into the passenger seat and looked out at the Tampa evening going gold around us. Neither of us said anything for a moment. The quiet was the comfortable kind, the kind that had taken the better part of a month to build and was now simply there, available, requiring nothing.

“Where are we going?” he said.

I reached across the seat and took his hand without looking away from the road.

“You’ll see.”

Chapter 23

Adrian

Brendan’s hand found mine across the center console. I threaded my fingers between his. It felt as natural as breathing, which surprised me, because nothing about my growing feelings for this man felt natural—and yet they did. It was confusing and wonderful and frustrating and didn’t make one bit of sense.

I supposed that was how it was supposed to feel.

I looked down at our hands and smiled, then stared back out at the Tampa evening passing around us.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“You’ll see.”

“You said that already.”

“It’s still true.”

“It’s been true for three blocks. Can I have a hint?”

“Nope.” He popped the “P” in that word like he was proud of it.

“One hint,” I said, letting my thumb stroke a little firmer across his hand while leaning across to lay my head on his shoulder in a most affectionate, possibly pathetic, begging gesture.

“Not happening, dancer boy. You’ll just have to be patient.”

“Is it far? You can at least tell me that.”

“Depends on how you define far in Tampa.”

“That eliminates Miami,” I said. “And most of Georgia.”

His eyes crinkled in amusement. “Congratulations on your elimination of Georgia.”

I shifted to look at him. He was watching the road with one hand on the wheel and the other snugly holding mine. He hadn’t looked at me once since we’d pulled out of the parking lot.

My mind drifted back to him kissing me in the exam room, catching me completely off guard, which nobody ever did. I read rooms for a living. I saw things coming before they arrived. I had not seen Brendan’s lips coming until they’d landed.

This man had spent nearly a month moving with the patience of a glacier and then, suddenly and without warning, spun me around and kissed me like he’d been thinking about it for a lifetime and had simply run out of reasons not to.

I was still processing this.

“You’re thinking very loudly,” he said.

“I’m thinking at a normal volume.”