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Then his hand came up, cupped the back of my head, and his mouth slammed down on mine.

In the middle of El T’s. With a huge crowd watching because it was Halloween, and everyone was out and about.

Was he crazy?

Planting my hands on his chest, I pushed.

He didn’t budge.

Then he angled his head to deepen the kiss, and his tongue swept against mine.

Eyes still open, I froze for half a second.

His eyes that had been closed popped open, and he froze too.

Then a sultry whimper purred up my throat, and I couldn’t control myself anymore. I melted into him and thrust my tongue into his mouth.

With a mighty rumble, he tightened his hold and gave better than he got.

Oh, God.

It was everything I’d dreamed it would be.

And more.

Oh God, it was so much more.

He tasted like cigarettes and mint, he smelled like that cologne I’d been smelling through the wall for weeks, and he kissed like a man who had been thinking about it for a very, very, VERY long time.

When he finally ripped his mouth away, his chest was heaving.

He took my face in both of his hands, thumbs on my cheekbones, and looked at me like he was waking up from a dream.

“He’s a fucking fool, baby,” he said roughly. “A fucking fool.”

He said it like he knew exactly what kind of fool a man had to be to look at me and walk the other way, because he’d been that fool himself.

“Joy.”

I jerked.

Ben was standing at the end of our table in his cape with his hat in his hands. He looked at Nightmare, then he looked at me, and I watched him understand the whole thing in about two seconds flat.

Nightmare rose to his full height beside me, and I felt the air in the room change.

Ben held his ground, his eyes still all for me. “I’m sorry, Joy,” he said, and I could tell that he meant it. “I shouldn’t have…” He blew out a breath. “That wasn’t fair to you. You deserved a lot better than tonight. I’m sorry.”

He was right. I did.

But what was done was done.

So, I glanced up at Nightmare.

With his eyes on me, he reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet, tagged a few bills, then tossed them on the table.

“Dinners on me,” he told Ben, then held out his hand to me and said, “Ready to get out of here, Sweets?”

I eyed his tattooed hand for half a second then took it.