Chapter Four

Dane spent the next hour talking and laughing with the beautiful woman. Lena was just what he needed to help him feel alive again. Being dead took its toll.

“I’ll be flying out tomorrow,” he said when it was going on midnight. It was time to seal the deal and move this somewhere more private.

He hoped she wouldn’t mind if he stayed the night. It somehow seemed more respectable if he stayed rather than ran away like a thief in the night.

“What time is your flight? I’m leaving tomorrow, too,” she said after biting her bottom lip.

She was a bit of a puzzle. She seemed to know where this was going, but there was something—shyness maybe?—that made him think she didn’t do this very often.

“Eight,” he answered honestly. Throughout their conversation there had been several times when he’d been able to tell her the truth. He’d enjoyed sharing those small facts. It made this next step slightly easier.

“Eight forty-five,” she said with a smile.

“Maybe we could have breakfast together before leaving for the airport,” he hinted with a grin.

She pressed her lips together and kept her gaze on the empty glass in her hands. He noticed her hands were shaking, but she gripped the glass tighter and smiled.

“What happens in Denver, stays in Denver?” she offered quietly.

“That’s right.”

“Okay.”

He could tell by the dip of her head she was nervous. She must not make a habit of meeting men at bars and taking them back to her room. That made this even better.

His leg throbbed when he stood, causing him to suck in a quick breath as the shooting pain subsided. He’d broken down and taken a pain killer when Lena was checking her phone, but it hadn’t taken effect yet.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Are you okay?” She looked down at his leg.

“Yeah. Old injury.” Injuries, he corrected silently. He didn’t offer the story since it was too unbelievable, even to him.

First, he’d been shot in the leg by his boss’s daughter. She’d been afraid at the time, and Dane was the first person to move toward her. A few months later, he was bitten by a dog in the same leg. And just three weeks ago, he’d been doing surveillance and fell off a roof. The same leg got ripped up on a fence. He was cursed.

“You kind of got a sexy John Wayne swagger thing going on,” she said with a laugh that made his body stir.

“Thank you, ma’am.” He tipped his imaginary cowboy hat and grinned.

This was going well. He liked a woman with a sense of humor. Caroline had been funny when they were in college, but real life had stripped it away.

“If you like the swagger, wait until you see the sexy scars.” Depending on the angle, they resembled an old woman with a pipe or a tree being stepped on by a giant chicken foot.

She laughed again. “You really know how to sell it.”

He reached for her hand and tugged her into him. Their lips met, and she let out a soft sigh as she melted against him.

One thing that hadn’t changed about Dane in all these years, he was still a romantic. He enjoyed the thrill of a first kiss, and the way a woman’s eyes lit up when she was interested. The anticipation of slowly stripping a woman and revealing each treasure of her body.

Maybe that was the reason he didn’t care for the normal bar hook-up. It lacked the natural exploration. It felt manufactured and fake.

This kiss, however, felt real.

Excitement and anticipation tingled down his spine.

His earlier concern of whether or not he would regret doing this was gone. It still might end up being a bad idea, but at the moment he no longer cared.

He wanted Lena.

He managed to release her so they could continue to her hotel room. Inside, he closed the door and pressed her up against it to kiss her lips and move down her throat.

“Let’s have a drink,” she said as she maneuvered away from him. He backed off, knowing she might be having second thoughts about being with a stranger.

As much as he wanted their encounter to proceed to sex, he would be content to simply be with her. To hold her and not feel so alone.

She tossed her purse on the first bed and went to the mini-fridge to pull out a bottle of whiskey and a can of cola. As she unwrapped the first of the plastic cups, he remembered he wouldn’t be able to join her.

“None for me, thanks.”

“I thought you were a Jack and Coke guy.”

“I was up until an hour ago when I switched to plain Coke. I took a pain killer before we left so I would be able to…move.” He winked at her.

“Oh.” She looked at the fifth of whiskey in her hand and set down the cup.

He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around her waist. He didn’t want her to need a drink for courage. If she wasn’t completely on board, he’d happily back off. While he wasn’t expecting anything long term, there was a chance for something more than a one-night stand. He lived in D.C. She lived in Charlotte. They were at least on the same side of the country and near major airports.

Maybe they could make something work if things went in that direction.

“If you’ve changed your mind, we can just talk. Or I can go. Whatever you want.”

“It’s not that. I mean, I want to. It’s just—”

He put his hands up to stop her. She bit her lip. This was more than just nerves. This was all out anxiety. She might think she wanted this, but something was not right.

“It’s okay, Lena. I don’t want you to regret this in the morning.” He turned to leave. “How about if I meet you downstairs for breakfast?”

He was nearly to the door, but she hadn’t answered. He could almost feel her indecision in the air. He wasn’t going to pressure her, though he was going to try for another kiss before he left.

He was thinking about that kiss when something smashed into his head. A burst of light shot through his vision.

Then darkness descended, and he fell to the floor.