Page 61 of The Pinkie Pact

I held out my hand for Sky as she stood up from the table. "Ready?"

"Ready," she said, placing her incredibly soft hand in mine. "That might have been the best dessert I've ever had."

I couldn't help smiling because sharing the molten chocolate cake with Sky had been like something out of one of my dreams come true, watching her lick the chocolate off her luscious lips.

"Thank you for dinner," she said as we headed out the front door, a chill hitting my too-warm body.

Thank God because I needed to cool down a bit.

"My pleasure," I said.

The valet looked at me expectantly, but I held up my hand because I needed to think for a minute. I'd had a lot of wine, and the last thing I wanted to do was be irresponsible, especially with Sky involved.

"Did you have anything else planned?" she surprised me by asking. "I don't know exactly how far we are, but I'd love to walk down to the Mall and see if tonight might be the night."

My heart halted in my chest. What exactly was she talking about? "Um, what do you mean?"

She leaned closer, making the breath leave my body, and gave me a funny look, her eyes wide. "You know, see if I can sit on Abe's lap?" she said, her voice low like she was telling me top secret intel.

For chrissake, Kieran, what did you think she meant?

I let out a laugh. "Ah, of course. We can do that."

"Good. I'm determined."

"And you want to walk?" I asked.

"If that's okay. It feels good to walk after all that food and wine. I'm just not sure what we do about your car."

"I'll take care of it."

After slipping the valet some money, he said he'd keep the car there as long as I needed, even overnight, and I could pick it up whenever I wanted. Grabbing Sky's hand once more, we headed down the sidewalk to the Mall which was only a short distance away.

"Are your shoes okay?" I asked her.

Smiling up at me, she swung my hand. "You're sweet. You know that?"

The grin that spread across my face almost hurt my cheeks it was so wide. Before I could answer, she did that little hip nudge thing, making me even more off-balance than I already felt.

"Don't let it go to your head, though," she added, laughing.

That was the second time she'd said that tonight. "Do you think I have a big head or something?"

She hesitated for a moment while I wondered what on earth she was thinking. "At first, yeah, I did. But now... not so much."

"Well... good?"

Giggling, she brought our clasped hands up to her face and completely shocked me when her cool lips kissed me. "Definitely good. Cocky guys are... ugh. Let's just say I've had enough of them to last a lifetime."

I was hardly cocky. Kind of the opposite. But her words made me wonder about her past, what all she'd put up with before.

"Have you... well, I know it's not really my business... but, um, I can't help wondering if you've had a rough experience in the past or something."

Although we kept walking, I sensed maybe I'd overstepped a boundary with that question because she was completely silent for a long time.

Fuck. Things had been going so well, especially with her kissing my hand. Why did I always have to question everything?

"Sorry," I said. "I shouldn't have asked that."

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