Solitary Man Read Online Free Page B

lifted her chin with his hand. “It’s not whatever, it’s important. The truth always is and I wasn’t out enjoying the sunshine, I was making myself scarce so you two could heal.” He drew a deep, painful breath. “And I was grieving myself.”
    He wondered if she’d go that one step further and ask why he’d walked out on her, but she jerked her head out of his grasp. “Makes for a good story,” she muttered.
    Realizing he’d been given a reprieve, he glanced down. A few more fries remained. “Eat up.”
    “I’m not hungry anymore. I’d like to go home.”
    “I’m always happy to oblige.”
    The sun was just peeking over the horizon as Nikki entered Janine’s apartment building with Kevin following close behind. She walked down the long hallway leading to the apartment. The lingering odors of food and the musty scent that always permeated the air seemed stronger now. Her full stomach didn’t appreciate the mixture of smells and she swallowed a groan.
    “Do you have your key?” Kevin asked.
    “Of course.” She wanted to get away from him as soon as possible.
    He’d sat across from her in the tight booth, and with little room beneath the table, his legs entwined with hers. Her body still vibrated from his heat and the strength of his muscles pressing against her. She fished through her pocket and withdrew the key her brother had given her long ago, then turned to place it in the lock. As soon as she got to the other side of that door, she’d be free of this insane pull that Kevin still had over her. Free of him. Unfortunately, Kevin had other ideas.
    He plucked the key from her hand, taking control. She withheld a protest, knowing it would do no good, and waited for him to let her inside. Instead he turned toward her. Leaning back against the old chipped paint, his massive shoulders surrounded by the door frame, he loomed large before her.
    Wall sconces provided the only source of light in the otherwise darkened hall. Not all of them worked, but the nearest one provided a backdrop for Kevin. The light shone on his raven-colored hair and illuminated his recently acquired tan, his skin, sun-kissed in the Florida Keys. Despite what she’d intimated, she believed that he was grieving too. She just had a hard time accepting his sudden return and intrusion into her life. It brought back even more painful memories. But intensity radiated from deep inside him, drawing her closer.
    “Nikki.” His low voice should have sounded like a growl, yet somehow she heard it as a deep caress, an effort to soothe her pain.
    Pain he’d helped cause, she reminded herself. “I should go inside.”
    He nodded but didn’t move, blocking entry to her home. “In a minute. I have one more question.”
    She curled her hands into tight fists and met his unwavering gaze. “Yes?”
    “You had your one question; now I want mine. When you think about that night, what is it you remember most?”
    He couldn’t have stunned her more if he’d announced her brother was still alive. They’d danced around this subject but neither one of them dared broach it directly. Not since her stupid comment earlier, the one he’d all but ignored.
    The reminder now added an edge to the sexual tension she’d been trying to fight the entire evening. Alone in the dimly lit hall, the only noise the sound of their voices, all rational thought receded from her brain.
    Her gaze never left his as she stepped forward. “You really want to know?”
    “I wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”
    She nodded and took two steps closer until she’d all but invaded his space. Having outmaneuvered herself, her body reacted in kind. A tight knot had settled in her stomach hours earlier and now unwound, sending sparks of desire throughout her body. She tingled from the inside out. From the pit of her stomach to her fingertips, energy and need surged through her… As if every fiber of her being recalled exactly what this man was capable of making her feel.
    She