Mina's Heart (7 page)

Mina recognized the subtext. She’d been here before. “I told you I’m not having sex with you. I don’t even kiss on the first date.”

Everett lifted her hand and brushed his lips across the back of it. “I didn’t ask you to come over and have sex. I asked you to hang out. We’d be doing the same thing there that we did in Elmhurst, only without a crowd. You can take off your shoes and get comfortable. I’ll even give you some cake. It’s chocolate.”

She laughed nervously, not all that certain he was telling the truth. Men always tried to get her in bed. “Did your mother make it?”

“Hell no. She’s a great person, but she can’t bake to save her life. I made it. From scratch.”

From the amount of umbrage in his tone, she figured he had actually made the cake. She truly wanted to know how far he’d gone to set this up. “Did you bake it just for me?”

He shook his head a little regretfully. Then he lifted her hand, which he still held with his larger one, and kissed it again. “I made it yesterday, so it’s mostly gone. There’s just enough left for us to finish it off. However, I can promise something special for tomorrow, and that’ll be just for you.”

They’d arrived at her rental car. She dug for her keys in her purse, but he took them as soon as she found them and stuck them in his pocket. She looked up, ready to launch a protest, but he captured her face between his palms. The hold was both firm and affectionate. Then he slid his fingers into her hair, wrecking her carefully upswept arrangement.

“You said you don’t kiss on the first date?” He peered deep into her eyes, asking silently for permission and relaying a lot about his intention.

She tried to shake her head, but he held her still, forcing her to speak. “Never.”

“I’ll respect that,” he said. “Feel free to sit this one out.”

With that, his mouth descended over hers. She could have panicked and pushed him away, and she knew he would have stopped. But she didn’t want that. She wanted to know what it felt like to be kissed by a man who had figured out how to sidestep the many restrictions she placed on him.

He brushed his lips lightly across a part of her that had suddenly become hypersensitive. He massaged and explored, leaving her mouth to skim across her cheeks, temples, and eyelids. By the time he made it back to her mouth, she’d parted her lips to suck in more air. He took it as an invitation to deepen his forays.

When his tongue slipped into her mouth, Mina wrestled with a split second of indecision. In her entire life, she’d allowed only three men this liberty. The first one had treated her mouth like a Popsicle, slurping and sucking the flavor away. The second had left her feeling like he’d simply licked her face inside and out. The third had been exceedingly gentle, to the point where she wasn’t sure if he had any muscle tone in his lips.

Everett wasn’t anything like that. His kiss was firm and commanding, a sensual feast she couldn’t hope to resist. A powerful, hot liquidity washed through her system, sapping her muscles of necessary strength. He took what he wanted—her participation truly wasn’t required—and left her weakened, clinging to him for support.

When he at last brought the kiss to its stunning conclusion, he wrapped his arms around her body and held her against him. She felt the rapid beat of his heart, and she knew he’d been affected just as deeply.

After several moments spent luxuriating in his embrace, she drew a shaky breath. “You are one devious man.”

“Yes.” He chuckled, rocking his chest against hers. “Wild got the scruples, and I got the cunning. Now that you know what you’re in for, do you want some cake?”

Mina laughed at the proud way he embraced his fault. She wasn’t as sold on the cake as she was on the prospect of receiving a few more kisses like that. For the first time ever, she honestly considered going to second base on the first date.

Things wouldn’t go further than that. She was very experienced in putting a stop to wandering hands. When she initially got to college, she had avoided dating because she didn’t know how to interact with men on anything but an academic level. The few who had managed to make her see them differently hadn’t made it past her defenses.

From the time she was little, she’d listened to her mother lecture her not to have kids until she was forty. Jin Ae had been eighteen when she’d married her high school sweetheart and nineteen when Mina was born. From that moment forward, her mother had been locked into a role. While she’d never expressed regret that Mina was in her life, she often said she wished that she’d waited ten or twenty years so that she would have been better prepared.

The unspoken part of her mother’s warnings was clear: don’t get trapped in an abusive relationship. Keep your legs closed and your options open.

And so she’d never let a man do more than touch her breasts, and two of the three had been restricted to touching over the clothes. Somehow she knew Ever would find a way around any restrictions she set. While that scared her a lot, she had a built-in escape plan because she didn’t want to stay in Vermont for more than a few months.

Just from the way he kissed, she knew she wanted to experience some heavy petting from Ever. With that in mind, she smiled and nodded. “Cake sounds yummy.”

“Great.” He clicked the button to unlock her doors. “You can drive us this time.”

Mina drew her brows together. “You’re going to leave your truck here?”

“I didn’t bring it. Wild drove.” He opened the door and motioned for her to get inside.

She was a little affronted that he’d just assumed she’d go home with him. “So you planned to ask me to your place the whole time?”

He stared at her for a long moment, the reflected pinks of the sunset clashing hard with his unusual green eyes. She had the feeling of being dissected yet again. When he spoke, she knew that was exactly what he’d been doing. “Mina, if you don’t want to come to my place, we can go anywhere you want. If you have an issue with using your car or with riding together, I can get Wilder’s keys, and he can go home with Micah. You seem to want to ascribe a lot of motives to me that don’t exist. I was pretty clear in stating what I want from you.”

He’d only said he wanted to spend more time with her. That kiss had shaken her more than she had realized. Recognizing that she hadn’t been nice, she lowered her gaze in an act of contrition. “I’m sorry, Everett. You
were
clear. You said cake and conversation.” She lifted her focus to find him staring at her with quiet expectation and no small amount of pride. It sent something strange and exciting aflutter in her midsection. “But then you kissed me after I said I didn’t kiss on the first date.”

She didn’t know what kind of response she’d expected—a little bit of remorse, perhaps? He displayed nothing approaching repentance.

Instead he flashed a devilish grin. “There’s a good chance I’ll do it again. Don’t worry; I won’t expect you to kiss me back until the second date. I’m a patient man. I can wait until tomorrow.”

Having taken men to task many times, Mina didn’t know what to do with the fact that Ever didn’t react the way he was supposed to. He didn’t seem acquainted with shame or guilt. Shaking her head and wondering what trouble she was courting, she got into the car and put on her seat belt.

Ever held her hand as she drove. It turned out he lived in an apartment complex less than a mile from town, so the trip was short. She waited in the car until he came around and opened the door. It seemed like the right thing to do.

He grinned as he helped her out of the car. “You’re learning. I like how quickly you pick up on the important things.”

This old-fashioned show of manners wasn’t important to her, but it was to him. In a departure from her normal attitude, her date’s preferences made a difference to Mina. She felt connected to him, a perception that had been missing from her association with any previous man she’d dated.

But his compliment had been delivered with a flirtatious twist of his lips, and that deserved an equal response. She returned his grin. “Smart women are hot.”

He laughed. “That’s definitely part of what I like about you.”

The lobby of the building was clean and modern, which made sense because it had been built the summer before. Mina couldn’t remember what they’d torn down to make room. Signs in the lobby pointed the way to the swimming pool and workout facilities. Everett led her through the maze of empty chairs and sofas to a pair of elevators.

“How long have you lived here?”

“Since it opened. My grandparents left Wild and me some land. I’m saving up to build a house.”

He didn’t look all that much like he wanted to talk about it, so Mina dropped the topic. If she had been in his shoes, she would have lived with her mother to save up the money. As it was, she scrounged for freelance work. She was saving her earnings to put down on a nice little bungalow just outside Santa Monica. Once she convinced her mother to move, she could reapply for the job she wanted and head west.

“What about you?” he asked, returning her attention to the moment. “What are your postcollege plans?”

Telling her date she had zero intention of staying in the state where he owned land and was planning to build a house would probably put a damper on things. Mina shrugged. “I have several offers, but I’m going to stay around here for a little while. My mom needs me.”

He nodded at that. “Family is important. Just don’t let it hold you back.”

The elevator doors slid open, and he ushered her inside. She laughed nervously at his warning. “Are you saying I should accept a job on the other side of the country?”

He ran his thumb along his jaw as he considered her question. Since he lived on the third floor, the trip didn’t take long. They were at the door to his apartment before he answered. “If that’s what you want, then nobody who cares about you would begrudge you the opportunity.”

She had a similar opinion, but her mother wasn’t the problem. Jin Ae had urged Mina to accept any job Mina wanted. Her mother had told Mina that she shouldn’t be a factor in her career decision. But she was. Mina, as she had her whole life, felt responsible for her mother. Growing up, she’d maintained perfect behavior and grades because she knew her mother would be punished for her transgressions. Her father had stated on many occasions that her behavior reflected her mother’s parenting ability.

Ever paused with his hand on the knob. “I didn’t plan on having company tonight, so please excuse the mess.”

He pushed open the door and reached inside to flip on the switch. True to form, he expected her to enter first.

The interior wasn’t what she had anticipated, especially after his warning. It opened to a narrow foyer with a dining room on the right. The light from the foyer fell across a tall, square table stained dark. A laptop and several stacks of papers occupied space there, which wasn’t something she would consider messy. It was obvious he did some work from home. Frames of various sizes hung on the walls. There wasn’t enough light for her to make out anything.

A door opened to the left. Through it, she could make out an unmade bed. Beyond that door, a narrow metal-and-glass table held three small baskets. Ever threw his keys in the first one. The second was full of potpourri, and the third was brimming with odds and ends. She made out some coils of rope, a Swiss army knife, and some clips like the kind she used to hook her water bottle to her backpack when she went hiking.

Everett closed the door to the bedroom and tossed one of those charming grins in her direction. “I’ve never voluntarily made a bed in my life.”

She laughed at his unapologetic explanation. “That’s okay. I stopped making my bed the day I left for college.” It was a small act of rebellion, but she derived immense pleasure from it.

He kissed her cheek and guided her forward with the gentle pressure of his hand on her lower back. That expression she liked was back on his face, the one full of pride and anticipation. “I knew it. You totally cut loose once you got to Harvard. Unless you’re expecting serious company, what’s the point? You’re just going to mess it up again.”

The apartment opened up just past the foyer, revealing a spacious kitchen behind the bedroom and a living area behind the dining room. A rectangular island divided the long room, and the far wall was full of windows. The living room had sliding glass doors that opened to a balcony. The lack of light meant Mina couldn’t get a true sense of the balcony’s size.

It wasn’t neat, exactly. Lived-in would be a more apt description. A glass and a mug were on the counter next to the sink. Two cereal boxes shared space on the island with a stack of paperback novels and some folded laundry. In the living area, throw pillows were stacked on one end of the sofa, and a pile of blankets was wadded at the other end. The wood floor looked like it had been swept but not mopped recently.

“I have a cat,” he said. “I hope you’re not allergic.”

On cue, a tiny feline climbed from beneath the blankets. It was a bundle of tan fur with black-and-white patches. It yawned and stretched before meandering toward Everett. “A kitten?”

“Yeah. The vet says she’s about eight months old. I’ve had her for about six weeks. She’s very affectionate.” The kitten brushed up against Everett’s ankles, arching and purring loudly. He scooped her up and set her on his shoulders. She settled down as he stroked her with one hand. “Her name is Jolinar. I call her Jolo.”

Mina scratched the kitten behind her ears. The little creature rubbed her head against Mina’s hand, adjusting to make sure the scratches happened exactly where she wanted them. She’d always wanted a kitten, but her father frowned on having pets. She’d been allowed a goldfish for a few months when she was in grade school, but it had died rather quickly, and that had been the end of that.

After a few minutes of bonding, Ever crossed to a post where a bit of wall separated the glass doors in the living area from the windows in the kitchen. Small platforms extended from the sides at random locations. Jolinar hopped to one a little higher than Everett’s head and began furiously licking all the places she’d been petted.

Ever pursed his lips in a wry frown. “I found her wandering around, starving, her fur a mess, on the land I’m clearing for the house. You’d think she’d be grateful.”