He didn’t skip a beat. “No, that would be the best fuckin’ idea you’ve had in a long time.”

I cocked my head to the side. “You don’t think it’d be a good idea for us to get to know each other again before we had sex?”

“Baby, you and I know each other better than we know anyone else.” He moved so our faces were close and whispered, “Some days I think I know you better than I know myself.”

The air whooshed out of me and I reached my hand out to the table. “I need a drink. Quick,” I muttered, and once he’d passed it to me, I gulped half of it straight down. Placing it back on the table, I said, “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“That thing where you say something sweet that makes me want to forget everything we’ve been through and let you back in?”

“There’s nothing sweet about me, Evie.” His eyes flashed hardness for a moment before reverting back to the softer gaze he usually reserved for me.

“Not true. You just gave me sweet.”

“No, I just gave you the truth. Don’t mistake that for sweet,” he said with the hard tone I knew so well. It was the tone he used whenever he was about to shut down on me.

“You two should totally get a room. Or maybe you should schedule a date for Valentine’s Day and work your shit out,” Maree said.

I answered her without taking my eyes off Kick. “He doesn’t do Valentine’s Day. Kick’s not your hearts and flowers kind of man.”

“She’s right, but I do make sure my woman is satisfied in other ways on Valentine’s Day,” he said, eyes still on me, a promise held deep inside them.

As lust roared through me, I gulped the rest of my drink down. When I’d drained the glass, I asked Kick, “Jesus, was that a double? It was strong.”

“Yeah.”

I raised my brows. “You trying to get me drunk?”

He smirked. “Don’t need to. You’ve already taken care of that.”

I decided I needed a moment away from him so I hopped off my stool. “I’m going to the ladies’, Maree. You wanna come? Kick can look after our table.”

“No, babe, you go. I’m gonna interrogate your man while you’re gone.”

I laughed. Maree was the queen of interrogation but what she didn’t know was that Kick was the king of evasion. “Have fun, you two,” I said and left them to it.

I wobbled my way to the ladies’ room. Kick was right when he said I was drunk. Time to slow the drinks down or else tonight would go way past messy.

The line at the ladies’ was long, and I started chatting with some of the women, so it took me twenty minutes to get back to the table. As I’d suspected, Kick must have evaded most of Maree’s questions because she looked frustrated. “How did your interrogation go?” I asked her with a grin.

She poked her tongue at me. “You knew I’d have no luck, didn’t you?”

“Totally, but who knew, maybe you would be the one to break him.”

She stood and grabbed her bag off the table. “I’m done for the night, guys.”

I frowned. “Really? I thought we’d catch a cab together.”

“I got a call while you were gone.” She grinned mischievously. “I’ve got a sure thing waiting at his house for me. Sorry, babe, but I can’t pass him up, and Kick said he’d take you home.”

Of course he did.

Smiling at her, I said, “Okay, go. I wouldn’t expect you to give up a sure thing.”

She blew me a kiss and turned and left. When I shifted my gaze from her to Kick, I found him watching me intently. “How did you know I’d be here tonight?” I asked.

He slid another drink across the table to me. “How do you know I didn’t go to more than one place looking for you?”

God, he was killing me tonight. I drank some of the bourbon he’d gotten me. Shit, another double. When I placed the glass back down, I said, “How many did you go to?”

He didn’t hold back. “Six.”

Fuck.

I took another drink. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why now, Kick? Why all of a sudden do you want to try this again, and what makes you think it would be any different to the two times we already tried to make it work?”

He raked his fingers through his hair. “It’s not all of a sudden for me, Evie. I’ve never stopped thinking of you, never stopped thinking I fucked it all up by letting you walk away. But I didn’t want to fuck your life up any further so I stayed away. I think deep down I always thought we’d find each other again when we were older. Jeremy’s death hit me hard and made me realise just how short life can be. I don’t want to wait till we’re older. I don’t want to fuck around anymore.”

I emptied my glass, taking a deep breath as the bourbon burnt on the way down. “Just because you don’t want to fuck around anymore doesn’t mean it would work. Not unless you’ve changed your idea of what being a couple is,” I said softly.

He leant his face close to mine. So close I could almost taste him. “Let me in, baby. Let me show you how I’ve changed.” Kick had never been the best at expressing his emotions but his eyes laid it all out for me.

Vulnerability, want and hope.

I placed my hand on his cheek.

One night wouldn’t hurt.

Surely.