Tan reached across her and closed the door. Then he clicked the locks, handed her the keys, tossed his own bag over his shoulder, and picked up his duffle.
Her signal to move so they could get this over with.
And since she had her Jamie and her Platinum—yes, her vibrator was named after the precious metal and no joke, it was worth as much as a bar of the stuff—to look forward to, she sucked in a breath and led the way over to the elevators. Security in her building was good. She had to swipe her card to access the room with the elevators and then swipe it again to get the elevator to move.
She hit the buttons for the lobby and her floor, and a few seconds later, the doors opened to reveal the marble-floored space. Kels put her hand out to prevent it from closing back up then pointed. “Just go out the doors and to the left. Your hotel is two blocks down.” Tanner glanced in that direction and nodded, but didn’t get off.
She raised a brow.
“I’ll walk you up first.”
“I don’t need—”
His expression went mulish, and she knew it was either spend the next five minutes fighting with him and knowing that any argument she might put up would be ignored anyway, or she could just accept that he was going to walk her up and then get on with her evening.
Rolling her eyes, she let go and stepped back, allowing the elevator doors to close and the metal death box to rise the six floors to her apartment.
“You didn’t use to give in so easily.”
She leaned back against the wall and stifled a sigh, since they would counteract her next words. “Meet new and improved me.”
Half of Tanner’s mouth tipped up, but his gaze drifted down to her toes, and if she wasn’t totally mistaken, Kels would say there was heat in those chocolate depths. But then again, she was probably just delusional due to the prickly pear’s yumminess. “Improved how?”
She glanced down then thought—thanks prickly pear—what the fuck? Her hands came up and she cupped her breasts, jabbing herself in the left one with her keys. Ow. “These are new since I’ve seen you.”
Tanner choked. “You got implants?”
A frown dragged her brows down. “No,” she said. “Pig.”
The doors dinged open, and he held them for her. “Just saying, I’m not the one cupping them and drawing attention to the hottest set of tits I’ve seen in ages.”
She couldn’t fault him for that.
Dropping her hands, she moved off the elevator. “My point was,” she said, “that I’ve grown up since I last saw you.”
He moved so he was walking next to her. “Grown up or filled out?”
This made her snort, and she punched him before admitting, “Both.”
“Yeah,” he said softly, “I noticed. What else has changed in nine years?”
“Hmm,” she said, slowing her pace. Her head wasn’t fuzzy, and she had gotten over her embarrassment with Tan. All that was left of her night was a pleasant warm sensation in her stomach from the cocktails. Or maybe that was just Tanner. “I’ve got my own place,” she told him. Her apartment was around the corner, the last one in the hall. Although it was smaller than the other units on the floor, the placement in the building meant that she had lovely views of the bay.
“That is very grown-up,” he said. “I don’t have an apartment.” At her look, he added, “Got rid of mine after a while. Was paying for a place that I was never in and so when I come home, I usually just bunk on someone’s couch.”
“Bas never mentioned you staying with him.”
“Probably because I’ve been home to the states maybe six times since I left, and four of those were for jobs.” There was a hint of something in his tone that she couldn’t place in his expression, but then his face cleared, and he nodded at the door they’d stopped in front of. “This you?”
She nodded. “Yup.”
Her keys were slipped from her fingers and before she knew it, the door was open, and he was nudging her inside. Immediately, because it was the first thing she always did when walking into her apartment, Kels stepped out of her heels and pushed them to the side. In proximity to the shoe rack her neat freak of a friend, Heidi, had bought her, but not on it.
His eyes slipped to her feet, and she glanced down to see her bright pink nails.
There those lips went again, curving upward just the slightest bit, even as his gaze seemed to be cataloging everything about her. Damn. Why did he have to be even sexier than before? Broader shoulders, slender hips, fine lines on the outside of his eyes that spoke to him having spent at least part of the last nine years laughing. His skin was tan and when he lounged back against the doorway crossing his arms, she noticed a tattoo on the inside of his forearm.
“What else has changed, Kels?”
She turned and walked further into her apartment, hanging up her coat, pulling out her laptop and plugging it into the charger she had on her kitchen counter. Then she stepped to her sink, reached into the cabinet, and pulled out a glass.
She held it up in his direction. “I have matching glassware? Want some lemonade?”
His half-smile went full, and he stepped into the apartment, closing the door behind him. “So, some things haven’t changed, have they? Do you still make your lemonade with approximately two pounds of sugar?” He prowled toward her, and Kels’s heart skipped a beat.
“Maybe just a pound now.” She shrugged and grabbed another cup, setting it on the counter before turning toward the fridge to retrieve her pitcher of lemonade. “I haven’t seemed to be able to grow out of my sweet tooth.”
“Hmm.”
Two glasses poured, she returned the pitcher and handed him one. “Thanks for the ride.” A beat. “In my car. With my gas. But thanks anyway, I suppose.”
“Just remember me when you don’t have to get up early in the morning to go and get it.” He took a sip and winced.
“Still too sweet?”
“There are some things that can never be too sweet,” he murmured, reaching past her to place the cup on the counter, and she knew he wasn’t talking about food or drink so much as people. Or maybe her?
But he’d left.
“How’s work?” she murmured, pushing that thought away.
The change that overtook him was instant and all-encompassing.
Relaxed shoulders stiffened, softened jaw clenched, lips pressed flat, and his eyes . . . those went cold, frostier than a chocolate shake. “Fine.”
Since that fine both spoke to things not being at all fine and also him putting up several rolls of caution tape, Kelsey set down her own glass and brushed by him, heading toward the door.
“For what it’s worth,” she said. “I’m glad you drove me home and we got to talk. Will make that trip down the aisle a lot easier.”
He’d been lost in thought for a moment but jolted as her words reached him.
Then his head came up, and he closed the distance between them. “Thanks for the drink.”
A nod.
“Apartment’s nice.”
Another nod, and he reached for the door.
“Tanner?”
“Yes, baby?” He was distracted by whatever was in his brain and probably didn’t mean that baby at all, but the endearment was enough for her filter-less, impulsive tongue.