He shuffles out past Bria, his eyes on her the whole time. Bria watches his behind as he exits. Well that was annoying.

“So Colt Palmer is talking to me again?” Bria steps closer, placing her hand on my chest.

I lift her wrist and remove her hand. “You know it’s not like that between us anymore.”

A look of hurt flashes across her face, but she steps back and holds her head high. “Then what do you want?”

“I need your help.”

I explain the arrangement I’m trying to secure with Geoffrey and the British military contract and how I need her negotiation skills, which she loves. I ask her not to say anything to anyone, since I haven’t told Taylor yet. She grins and bites her lower lip. She likes that she knows about this trip before Taylor does. Maybe this was a bad idea. No. I have some making up to do with Taylor before I spring this on her.

“Bria, don’t say anything.”

She holds her hands up. “Fine, lover boy. But I doubt she’ll be happy about this.”

“I know.”

When Bria leaves I go online and buy our plane tickets and reserve our hotel. Then I email Taylor.

TO: Taylor Beckett

FROM: Colt Palmer

SUBJECT: Tonight

I know it’s against the rules, but considering I’m in charge…I don’t care. Please come over tonight?

Colt

A few seconds later, she responds.

TO: Colt Palmer

FROM: Taylor Beckett

SUBJECT: RE: Tonight

Mr. Palmer,

Even though it’s a gross misuse of power, I like when you’re in charge. I’m hanging out with Logan and MJ tonight, but after lights out, I’ll sneak down. But you have to promise you’ll talk to Vera if I get busted.

Yours,

Taylor

I’m lighting the last candle when I hear her tap softly at the door. I open it and pull her into my arms. Sweet vanilla and her floral shampoo fill my senses. “Hi.”

She wraps her arms around me, hugging me tight.

I walk us backwards and let the door swing closed behind us. The room is dim with just a few candles glowing softly.

“Wow. Thank you for planning this,” she says, noticing the candles once I release her.

“You’re welcome, baby.” I wanted to show her that she’s special to me.

“You just don’t want to go out in public with me after what happened last time.”

I grin, guilty as charged. “No. I just wanted tonight to be about you and me.”

She smiles up at me, lifting up on her toes to kiss my cheek. “Sometimes you say the sweetest things.”

Good. That’ll make what I have to tell her easier.

“But still, I think we need to talk about last weekend.”

“Oh.” I frown.

“We can’t just hide from your past.”

“Why not?” I nuzzle against her neck, breathing her in.

She giggles, but swats me away. “Because. I have a few more questions for you.”

Shit. I thought we’d been over this. I lead her to my bed, where I have a tray of strawberries, chocolate sauce and bowl of Cheetos.

“For me?” she asks, smiling.

I nod.

“Sweet of you.” She pops a Cheeto in her mouth, settling on my bed.

Her posture tenses, stalling around the questions she wants to ask.

“Lean back,” I murmur, arranging the pillows behind her. She leans against them so she’s half sitting, half lying down.

I dip a strawberry into the bowl of chocolate sauce. “Close your eyes,” I whisper.

She obeys, letting her eyes fall closed.

I bring the berry to her mouth and dab the chocolate on her bottom lip. She smiles and her tongue darts out to taste it.

“Mmm. It’s warm.”

Pride surges inside me, happy that I’ve pleased her. I lean in and lick the rest of the chocolate from her lip.

She inhales sharply at the surprise of my tongue on her mouth and her eyes fly open before slowly drifting closed again.

I want tonight to be perfect for her since I’d fucked up on our date last weekend and I still had to tell her about going out of town with Bria.

I feed her the strawberry and kiss away the sweet juice lingering on her bottom lip.

She smiles, lazily opening her eyes. “We’re still going to have that conversation.”

Damn. Distracting her wasn’t going to work. “I know.”

I fed her a Cheeto next.

She chews and swallows, watching me thoughtfully.

I pop one into my mouth as I give her another. Maybe if I keep feeding her, we won’t have to talk. I loose count of the number of Cheetos I feed her when she holds up her hand, stopping me.

“I’m good, thank you.”

I move the tray from the bed and settle in next to her. “I have something to tell you, but you go first. What do you want to know?”

“So last weekend…all those girls…it got me thinking.”

That’s exactly what I was afraid of.

“Why did you seem to change so easily for me? And how can I trust that you have really changed?”

What can I say to make her believe me? This change might seem fast to her, or not sustainable, but I know it is. Being with Taylor grounds me and gives me a connection I’ve been missing for years. And I don’t even care how sappy I sound. The love word pops into my head again, but I don’t want to tell her yet. I don’t want her to think I’m just saying it to smooth things over.

She’s waiting, watching me. I cup her face, and drift my thumbs across her cheeks. “I’m falling for you, hard, baby. Give us a chance, okay? Give me a chance to show you how much you mean to me.”

She leans in and kisses me. Thank God.

But after several minutes, she stops and pulls back. “What did you have to tell me?”

Oh, shit that’s right. I need to tell her I’m going away. But suddenly, telling her about Bria right now when things are still so fragile between us doesn’t seem right. I’ll have to tell her eventually, but not right now. Not when we’ve just made up.

I take a deep breath. “You know how I’ve turned down some of the assignments McAllister had lined up?”

She nods.

“I’m working on a new deal for the school, and it means I’ll have to go away for a little while.”

“Oh.” Her face falls.

“I’m leaving next week, and I’ll be in London for a few weeks while I work one case and try to secure a long term partnership with another agency.”

“London, huh?”

I nod.

“Sounds cool.”

I shrug. “I guess. I’ll be working a lot, so there won’t be much time for fun.”

My cell phone chimes loudly from across the room. This is not the first time it’s interrupted one of our moments alone together.

Taylor sighs, rolling her eyes. “That phone is really starting to piss me off.”

I reach for it. I’ve missed several calls and texts from girls I used to hang out with. Shit. Taylor looks down at the phone, a little crease on her forehead.

“Sorry,” I mumble.

She shakes her head. “I’m going to erase all those old contacts from your phone.”

“Hey.” I tilt her chin up to meet my eyes. “I’m sorry, okay. You trust me, right?”

She nods once. “But that doesn’t mean I like it.”

She never fails to tell me exactly how she feels. It’s one of the things I like about her.

Taylor

I try to forget about the random girls calling my boyfriend to hook up, and let what he just told me about London sink in. I don’t like the idea of him leaving for several weeks, not when things are just starting to get to a solid place between us, but I understand that he has to do this for his job.

“I asked Reis to keep an eye on you while I’m gone.” He kisses my forehead.

“I don’t need babysitting, Colt. Besides, I’ll keep myself busy with school, MJ and Logan.”

“I know. It’s just, he doesn’t have many friends here, so you’d actually be doing me a favor if you kept him company. And I already asked him. He wants you to come to his first soccer game.”

“Okay.” I shrug. I can hang out with Reis while Colt’s gone. Maybe I could help him grow up a little, like I’d managed to do with Colt.