Chapter Five #3
A smile tugged at her mouth. “In a good way?”
“In a very expensive way.”
She laughed, and this time it came easier.
“That may be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
“I aim high.”
“I’m starting to see that.”
His gaze held hers.
The teasing faded again, replaced by something slower. Something that slipped beneath the conversation and settled low in her stomach.
Hailey became aware of how close he sat. His knee near hers. His forearm on the bar. The loose opening of his shirt at his throat. The strong line of his hands around the glass.
She also became aware that she wanted those hands on her.
The realization was not subtle.
It arrived hot and immediate, dragging her pulse with it.
Tyler’s eyes darkened, as if he had followed the thought somehow.
“Hailey,” he said quietly.
Her name sounded different now.
Less like a tease.
More like a warning.
Or a question.
She should stand up.
Pay her bill.
Go back to the bungalow.
Lock the door.
Read her rescued book.
Stay present, sure, but not this present.
Instead, she said, “Do you want to walk me back?”
Tyler went very still.
The noise of the restaurant seemed to drop away.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
The question was so careful, so unlike the cocky flirtation from the beach, that it loosened something in her chest.
No pressure.
No assumption.
No need.
Just choice.
Hers.
Hailey looked at him, at the beautiful man who had hit her with a volleyball, worn her coffee, returned her book, made her laugh, and somehow seen the exhausted parts of her without making her feel weak.
Her answer came out softer than she expected.
“Yes.”
Tyler’s jaw flexed.
He looked toward his table, where Jack was very obviously pretending not to watch them.
Hailey followed his gaze.
Jack lifted both thumbs.
The strawberry-blonde woman—Bethany—covered her smile with one hand.
Hailey groaned. “Your friends are not subtle.”
“No,” Tyler said. “They’re terrible.”
“Are you sure you want to leave them?”
His eyes returned to hers.
“I’ve wanted to leave with you since I saw you at the bar.”
Butterflies erupted low in her stomach.
She tried for composure and only half succeeded. “That was very smooth.”
“It was honest.”
“Even worse.”
His smile was slow. “Is it?”
Hailey reached for her purse and stood before she could overthink herself into retreat. The Long Island made the room tilt pleasantly for half a second, but Tyler’s hand hovered near her elbow without touching.
Ready to steady her.
Waiting for permission.
That nearly undid her.
She placed her hand lightly on his forearm.
His skin was warm beneath her fingers.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“I know.”
But he stayed close anyway.
Tyler paid for his club soda despite her protest that it was ridiculous to pay separately for a drink that contained no joy. Hailey paid for her dinner and very pointedly ignored Jack’s grin as they passed the table.
“Night, Von,” Jack called.
Tyler did not slow. “Don’t wait up.”
“We weren’t planning to.”
Bethany leaned around Jack and smiled at Hailey. “It was nice almost meeting you.”
Hailey laughed despite herself. “You too.”
***
Outside, the night air wrapped around them, cool and salted after the restaurant’s warmth. The street glowed with soft lights from shops and passing cars. Beyond the buildings, the ocean breathed in the darkness.
For a few steps, neither of them spoke.
Hailey was suddenly aware of everything.
The sway of her dress against her thighs.
The brush of Tyler’s arm near hers.
The distant sound of waves.
The reckless fact that she had asked him to walk her back and had not yet decided whether she wanted the walk to end at her door.
Tyler glanced down at her. “Still charming yourself on your solo dinner?”
She smiled. “I was doing an excellent job before you interrupted.”
“I brought your book.”
“You did.”
“I cleared up the Bethany misunderstanding.”
“You created the Bethany misunderstanding by sitting next to her.”
“I was assigned that seat.”
“Convenient defense.”
“True defense.”
Hailey looked ahead, fighting a smile.
They turned onto the quieter beachside lane that led toward her bungalow. The restaurant noise faded behind them, replaced by the hush of waves and the occasional distant laugh from the sand.
The moon painted the water silver.
Hailey slowed near the edge of the beach path.
Tyler slowed with her.
Her bungalow waited a little farther down, porch light glowing softly. Safe. Quiet. Hers.
For the week, anyway.
Tyler looked toward it, then back at her. “That you?”
“Yes.”
“Nice spot.”
“It is.” She hesitated. “The owner told me to enjoy the sunset.”
“Did you?”
“Not tonight.”
“No?”
She looked up at him.
The space between them felt charged now, humming with everything unsaid. His face was shadowed beneath the streetlight, but she could still see his eyes. Steel-blue. Focused entirely on her.
“No,” she said. “I got distracted.”
His breath changed.
Just slightly.
But she heard it.
“By dinner?” he asked.
“Among other things.”
Tyler stepped closer, slowly enough that she could move away.
She did not.
“Hailey.”
There was her name again.
That low, careful warning.
She was so tired of being careful.
She was tired of crisis plans, public statements, schedules, expectations, and the relentless discipline of wanting something but denying herself because wanting was inconvenient.
Tonight, she wanted.
That was all.
She wanted the ocean air.
She wanted the moonlight.
She wanted Tyler’s mouth.
She wanted to stop thinking for once and feel something that belonged only to her.
He lifted a hand, then paused just beside her cheek. “Can I kiss you?”
The question slid through her, warm and devastating.
Hailey’s answer was barely above a whisper.
“Yes.”
Tyler touched her cheek like she was something precious, thumb brushing the edge of her jaw.
Then he kissed her.
Soft at first.
Careful.
A slow press of his mouth to hers that made the entire day collapse into this one point of contact.
Hailey inhaled sharply through her nose, fingers curling against his shirt.
Tyler made a low sound in his throat and deepened the kiss.
That was when careful disappeared.
Heat rushed through her, sudden and consuming. His mouth moved over hers with a hunger that matched the ache building beneath her ribs. She stepped closer, and he caught her waist, pulling her in until her body met the hard, warm length of his.
Every sensible thought she had left scattered.
He tasted like mint and club soda, like restraint barely holding.
Her hands slid up his chest, over the open collar of his shirt, and the memory of touching him with café napkins flashed through her mind so vividly she almost laughed into the kiss.
Tyler broke away just enough to look at her.
His breathing was uneven.
So was hers.
“That funny?” he murmured.
“I was thinking about the coffee.”
His mouth curved against hers. “I think we’ve improved.”
“Significantly.”
He kissed her again, and this time Hailey rose onto her toes to meet him.
The street, the beach, the restaurant, the entire world seemed to fall away beneath the rush of him.
When they finally separated, Tyler rested his forehead lightly against hers.
“I can walk away right now,” he said, voice rough. “If that’s what you want.”
Hailey closed her eyes.
There it was again.
Choice.
Not pressure.
Not need.
Choice.
She thought about Amanda telling her to find herself.
She thought about the note tucked in her book.
Stay present.
She thought about the woman she had been in New York, running on exhaustion and adrenaline, giving pieces of herself away to people who never noticed the cost.
Then she opened her eyes and looked at Tyler.
“I don’t want you to walk away.”
His fingers tightened gently at her waist.
“No?”
“No.” She slid her hand down his chest and took a breath that felt like stepping off a ledge. “I want you to stay.”
For one heartbeat, Tyler did not move.
Then his expression changed, something hot and reverent passing across his face.
“Thank God,” he said.
Hailey laughed, breathless and startled.
He smiled, and she felt it everywhere.
Together, they walked the last few steps to her bungalow, his hand warm at the small of her back, the ocean whispering behind them like a secret.
At the door, Hailey fumbled once with the key.
Tyler’s mouth brushed the side of her neck.
She nearly dropped it.
“Careful,” he murmured.
She shot him a look over her shoulder. “You are not helping.”
“I’m trying not to.”
“That’s worse.”
His smile turned wicked.
The lock clicked open.
Hailey stepped inside first, then turned back to him.
For half a second, Tyler stayed on the threshold, moonlight behind him, waiting.
Still letting it be her choice.
Her heart twisted.
Then she reached for the front of his shirt and pulled him inside.
The door closed behind them.
And for the first time since Hailey Greenwood had arrived in Santa Monica, she stopped thinking about everything she had run away from.
She was here.
She was present.
And Tyler Von was kissing her like he had no intention of letting her forget it.