Page 80 of Sunkissed Colorado
“Anyone could. The flyer for the vigil is still online. Someone printed it out.”
“You don’t have a theory about who would do that?”
She shook her head, dark eyes downcast. “Not really. But just before I found the note, I saw Tommy Pickering hanging around the parking lot. He…said some things.”
My gaze narrowed. “Likewhat?”
“I’d rather not repeat most of it.”
“Z.”
“Him being a creep doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does. Matters if I need to beat his ass. Which, it sounds like I do.” I hadn’t even confronted Tommy about that nonsense he’d said to Zandra about me in high school. And now he was skulking around her in the parking lot at night?
“Tommy mentioned Jessa to me tonight. I just want to know if he left the note on my car. And if he did, why.”
I tossed the note on the counter. “We have cameras around Hearthstone now.” We’d installed them after the broken window. “Maybe they show if it was Tommy or someone else.”
Zandra took another sip of coffee. “I checked. The camera’s view didn’t reach that part of the parking lot. It’s focused on the perimeter of the building, windows and doors.”
“Then we need more cameras.”
“This is small-town Colorado, not New York City, Callum. Cameras are expensive, which is why we didn’t get a million of them in the first place to cover every inch of the Hearthstone property. You know I’m right.”
“Maybe. Still don’t like it.” I tugged her stool closer to mine, my legs bracketing hers. “Pisses me off that you were scaredtonight, dealing with Pickering and that note, and I wasn’t there.”
“You were fighting a fire. I’m just your coworker.”
“Z, you have never been just that to me.” I reached up, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Maybe you were right, and we shouldn’t fool around again.”
“Probably.” The look she gave me was pained. Yet it made me hope, so I kept going.
“But what we did in the storage room? That was hotter than anything I’ve ever done. And I wasn’t even inside you.”
If anything, feeling her give in once had only ignited my need instead of extinguishing it.
“You’re nowhere near out of my system,” I said. “It’s like all other women have ceased to exist. As far as sexual attraction goes, anyway. You’re the only one I want.”
Her eyes searched mine. “I want you too. But this,us…I don’t know what this is.”
“I don’t either.” I stroked my thumb across her cheekbone. “I just know it feels really fucking good to have you close to me. It’s nearly impossible not to kiss you.”
“Then do it.”
I leaned in and tasted her, slow and deliberate. Eased my tongue between her lips. This wasn’t like any of our desperate kisses before. This was deeper, more significant, though I couldn’t put a name to what it meant.
She’d just gotten out of a bad relationship, and I’d never even had one. Then there was the wholecompeting over a jobthing, where I was far more likely to get burned if this went wrong.
But the thought ofnotkissing her was like thinking of not breathing. Why choose to suffer when the oxygen, the very thing I needed, was right there?
Then the sounds of shuffling feet and a throat clearing made us both look up.
Connor was smirking, while Niko just looked exhausted and bewildered. They must’ve gotten home at the same time.
“Darius made coffee if either of you want some.” I grabbed Z’s hand, tugging her to stand beside me.
“That’s Zandra, by the way,” Darius said.
