Chapter 11: The Loading Dock

Cal stopped an arm's length behind her.

Rain ran off the loading dock roof in sheets, and it had soaked her dress to the knee.

"Gerald looked at you," he said. "Like he'd seen you before."

"I know."

"Do you know him?"

"Not tonight." She turned around, and her face was wet with more than rain. "Please, Cal. Ask me anything but that."

"Then I won't."

He took off the valet jacket and put it around her shoulders.

She stared down at the sleeves.

"You walked into a room of three hundred people and said your own name," she said. "After what they did to you."

"I told you I'd pay everyone back."

"Cal."

"Lena. Preston. The board at Mercy. Whoever sat in that car." He stepped closer. "I was going to start with them. I got as far as the stage."

She laughed, short and unsteady.

"You're going to get yourself killed."

"Probably not tonight."

She looked up at him.

The rain had flattened her hair against her cheeks.

"You said you pay back everyone," Kira said slowly. "Then pay me."

"For what?"

"Don't ask what. Just pay me."

She took hold of the front of his shirt with both fists and pulled his mouth down to hers.

The kiss was nothing like the near-miss in the room above the garage.

It was hard and hungry, and tasted of rain and salt.

Cal made a sound against her lips and pulled her in with both arms.

She pushed back until her shoulders met the steel roller door.

Her hands went under his collar and over his shoulders.

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