Chapter 15 #2
Brandon rolls his massive shoulders and walks toward the semi-circle of waiting women. He takes turns greeting all of them with a wide smile. A presumptuous lady fishes a dollar bill from her purse and places it kindly into his palm alongside a caramel candy in a gold wrapper.
I laugh into my hand from where I’m leaning against the wall. He’s working the crowd like a professional, and I realize that I truly have no idea what he does for work. Maybe he is an exotic dancer?
Brandon strides back toward me, holding out his phone. “My phone is already connected to the event center’s Bluetooth, so I’ll tell you when to push play.”
“Push play? What, do you have a routine or something?”
Brandon’s eyes hold mine captive as he does the whole sexy-backward walking thing. “When this is all over, try not to fall in love with me, k?” Brandon plants himself in front of the semi-circle and gives me a nod.
I push play, and a punchy nineties song spills out of the overhead speakers. My jaw drops as I watch the massive man break into a flawlessly choreographed routine. And he’s not bad, either. He’s got rhythm and is oddly light on his feet.
Thankfully, the moves are zero-percent suggestive, otherwise we might have had a few failed pace-makers. A stunned laugh escapes me as Brandon drops into a breakdancing move. The man has the audacity to freeze mid-pose and throw a wink at me.
I fan both hands toward my face like I just can’t get enough, and he laughs. He ends the performance in an absurd gangster pose, and I can’t help but whoop and cheer along with the elderly.
His face is flushed, but he’s unleashing a crooked grin at the crowd. They’re eating it up. Then he blows me a kiss, and I pretend to catch it.
What can I say? The man’s got moves.
Brandon pulls a wad of one dollar bills out of his leather jacket and pays the street vendor.
The soft pretzel he hands me steams in the chilly night air, and the warmth of it seeps through my gloves.
I practically moan as I take a bite, thankful for the salvation of calories that will prevent Brandon from witnessing me turn into a hangry monster.
We turn and walk along twinkly festive storefronts.
“Sooo…where’d you get all those one dollar bills, Mr. Roberts?”
Brandon’s laugh is deep and rich. “Not where you’re thinking. I work at a restaurant, and people always tip more around the holidays.”
I nod, take another bite of my soft pretzel, and swallow. “So you just moonlight as an exotic dancer, then?”
Brandon swings in front of me and walks backward with teasing dimples. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were wishing I was a dancer. Why? You need someone to spice things up?”
I can’t help but laugh, “No. You’ll have to find someone else to pawn your services on. But if I ever need someone to perform a secondhand boy-band routine, I’ll know who to call.”
Brandon’s smile is white against his tan skin, but he claps a massive hand to his heart. “Secondhand? You wound me.”
My pretzel is soon gone, and Brandon hands me his. I take it shyly before stuffing another bite into my mouth.
Brandon chuckles. “Looks like I gotta keep you fed. Good to know.”
We continue to walk.
“Where did you learn that routine anyway?” I ask.
“Tuck and I performed it for our sixth-grade talent show.” He sighs like the fate of the world lies on his tattooed shoulder. “I guess that’s when the girls first fell in love with me.”
I snort. “And it was all downhill from there? Aww, you poor pretty lady’s man.”
He stops short on the sidewalk, and I almost run into his chest. The cocky glint beneath his thick lashes makes my left knee bounce again. I tear my gaze from his and readjust the belt on my red peacoat. When I finally muster enough courage to meet his eyes again, he’s much closer.
“I knew you thought I was pretty.” His minty whisper clouds in the air and caresses my cold cheek. “But I’m still nowhere as pretty as you.”
I try to fight from blushing. “Is that what you say to all your dates? I mean, after you show off your dance moves in the retirement home?”
Brandon doesn’t look embarrassed in the slightest, and I can’t deny that I find his confidence very attractive.
“But I’m guessing that bachelorette party wasn’t on the agenda for tonight?” I say. “Pray tell, what was supposed to happen in that event center?”
Brandon looks at me like I’m simultaneously annoying and amusing. He makes a show of silently rejoining my side and offering his elbow. I thread my sleeve through his leather jacket and try to ignore how his bicep flexes against my arm.
“So you’re just not gonna tell me?” I ask.
He sucks in his hollow cheeks before blowing a long breath into the frigid night. “It was supposed to be a romantic dinner with candles and stuff. Things just got… miscommunicated.” Brandon takes my empty pretzel wrapper from me and tosses it in a trash can.
A laugh spills across my cold lips. “How in the world did a candlelit picnic get swapped for a grandma’s bachelorette party?”
“Tuck’s cousin’s family owns the event center. When they don’t have bookings, sometimes I’ll bribe Tuck’s cousin to go set up a candlelit picnic. They must have booked the space and forgotten to tell me. And now that punk owes me my money back.”
“So, the candlelit picnic is a routine thing, then? For whatever girl you’re seeing?”
Brandon runs a sheepish hand through his hair, and I can’t tell if the red in his cheeks is from embarrassment or the cold. He tilts a shoulder and says, “Should a magician reveal his tricks?”
That’s all the confirmation I need. It’s one thing to know Brandon is a playboy, but it’s another to feel the sting of a date that I thought was meant for me—after who knows how many girls already experienced it.
Honestly, a candlelit picnic would have melted me, and I‘m already in danger of puddling for this cunning man like a soupy snowman. So I’m thankful, because it reminds me of exactly who I’m dealing with.
Brandon isn’t a commitment-type guy. And I’m not a commitment-type girl.
I mentally apply another layer of non-cling spray and douse myself for good measure.
“What’s my dare?” I change the subject, bouncing on the balls of my feet and swinging my arms. I’m more than ready to abandon whatever feelings these are and have some careless fun. “You said you get the next dare.”
Brandon opens his mouth, then closes it with an unreadable expression. He looks like he wants to say something, but he shakes his head instead.
“I’m not sure yet.”
A few minutes of walking pass before he tugs me in a new direction. A familiar bare tree line comes into view, and I yelp with excitement.
“Jackson Park! I love this place! My Grandma—”
“Brought you here to see the cherry blossoms as a kid, I remember.” Brandon’s smile is so gentle that I suddenly don’t feel cold anymore.
I stop and study him. Just when I think Brandon is all smooth talk, he goes and does something thoughtful. Like he might care about getting to know me enough to remember the little details I share with him.
Brandon must read the confusion on my face, because he gives a boyish shrug before he continues. “And then you proceeded to honor her memory with a hideous painting.”
I laugh. “I still have it, too. It’s under my bed. Couldn’t bear to throw the ugly thing away.”
“What? Ok. Now I have to see it.”
I pull up short and yank my arm out of Brandon’s. “No way. You already saw the figure-drawing picture I did of you. Was that not horrifying enough?”
“You can’t scare me off that easily, Kate.
” Brandon steps close and lifts both of my gloved hands in mid-air until my palms are pressing against his.
He takes a moment to admire the contact before he knits his fingers through mine and pulls me to him.
Our hands stay clasped between our chests as he softly kisses me on the cheek.
My body fills with so much heat, I bet he can see it radiating off me.
Brandon pulls back and gives me a lopsided grin. “Plus you don’t have a choice, remember? I get the next dare, and I dare you to show me.”
I can’t form words. I can’t form thoughts.
All I can feel is the ghost of those full lips on my cheek and the scratch of his stubble.
“Kate?”
I snap out of my trance. “Fine. But I want a bonus dare. An honorary dare. A freebie, if you will.”
Brandon cocks his head to the side, raising a model-worthy eyebrow. “And why on earth would I do that?”
I bat my thick lashes. “Because you’re a gentleman and I’m a damsel in distress.”
“You can’t use your femininity to get free stuff.” He laughs. “And you’re not in distress.”
“Yes, I can, and yes, I am. You distress me.”
His rumbly laugh grows louder, and I grin.
“Fine,” he says. “One complimentary dare coming up. Don’t say I never gave you anything.”
I squeal like I’m in high school and take off running down the sidewalk. Brandon chases after me until I round the corner and stop in front of a mattress store.
“Go bounce on the beds.” I point to the window with a breathless laugh.
“What?” His green eyes pull wide as his chest rises and falls. “You want me to go jump on their mattresses?”
I nod. “I do. I think I would like that very much.”
Laughing, he shakes his head in exasperation, but I can’t stop grinning like a goon.
Suddenly Brandon tugs the lapels of my red peacoat and his mouth crashes over mine.
His breath heats my icy lips, and I soon drown in a lake of fire.
His hands cradle the back of my head, keeping me firmly where he wants me.
The pressure of his lips is perfect but somehow not enough.
Too soon, he breaks the kiss, and that cocky grin of his slides back into place.
“Just in case I’m locked up after this,” he breathes, hands still firmly holding me in place, “I couldn’t go the night without tasting you at least once.”
I’m left speechless on the sidewalk as Brandon strides inside, removes his shoes, and begins bouncing on the mattress closest to the window.
He tries a few knee tucks, getting more air, and I can’t help but burst into laughter when he flings his massive limbs out like a starfish.
It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, and I’m saving this memory in my permanent collection.
His head whips toward a posse of employees that begins to race toward him.
His wild eyes spin back to mine, and I see him mouth through the window, “Run!”
He’s tackled by a large man in a white uniform as I take off down the sidewalk.