Naz didn’t drive women home, let alone walk one. They were lucky if he called them a cab come morning, to be honest. It wasn’t that he was purposely trying to be an asshole, but he was upfront about what he wanted or expected from a woman, too.
Usually something quick.
One night.
Even better if they were gone before morning.
That was it.
He didn’t have time for more—his life didn’t allow it. He was accustomed to handling the physical side of his life and needs as they came up, and moving onto the next task in his day. It was how his brain liked to micromanage everything.
Relationships and sex were the same thing.
Except … he wanted nothing more than to walk Roz back to her parents’ home simply because she said he could when he asked. He wanted five minutes with her where they weren’t surrounded by everyone else watching.
Because yeah, they’d been watching.
His parents. Hers. Their siblings.
Fucking everyone.
Roz hadn’t seemed to notice, and maybe that was a byproduct of the fact the girl was used to being on display, in a way. She’d have to be used to people staring at her considering how often she sat in front of a piano on stage, right?
Naz wasn’t the same.
He noticed.
The genius thing made people pay attention to him, anyway. But that novelty quickly fucking wore off when people realized the only thing the genius thing did was make Naz smarter than them at the end of the day. It didn’t make him particularly special—but he was just because he was him, and there was only one of him—or a goddamn superhero. He swore people thought just because he had a genius level IQ that some kind of magic was about to pop out of his ears from his brain.
That’s not how it worked.
Nonetheless, he was very aware of the people around him at all times. It was partly because of the genius thing, and he wasn’t fond of attention but also because of who he was. His last name and the legacy behind it meant Naz couldn’t afford to not pay attention. The moment he decided to follow his father’s footsteps in Cosa Nostra and as a gunrunner meant Naz no longer had the excuse of being distracted.
Even if he seemed like it.
So yeah, he noticed.
Naz was a lot of things.
Criminal.
Dangerous.
Quiet.
He was not, however, unaware.
And right now …
Roz looked over at him, and smiled.
He was also in love—how and why and all the rest, he didn’t know. But it was the strange clenching of his chest every time he caught Roz’s stare with his own; the way his heart beat-beat-beat like it was going to pound a hole right out of his chest; how he felt like if he took his sights off her for too long, she might fucking disappear.
Because he didn’t know how this was real. How was something like falling in love with someone at first glance real?
But what else could it be?
Naz had been told his whole damn life that he was something amazing. That he was going to do great things, and not becausehe was a genius, but simply because he was him. Was this that great thing?
Was she his great moment?
Naz wasn’t sure.
He sure as fuck wanted to find out.
Roz glanced over at him on the darkened trail, and though there was about six inches between the two of them as they walked, he had the greatest urge to grab her around the waist, and bring her closer. His heart and his mind just wanted her closer. And that was all before he got in to what his body wanted.
He ignored that bit.
Naz wasn’t fucking this up because regardless of how smart he was, he was still a damn man at the end of the day. And men tended to fuck shit up just because they couldn’t help it. Men thought with the smaller head between their legs, and not the one resting on their shoulders. He wasn’t one of those. Or shit, he was going to try really hard not to be.
Not for her.
“Did you know our dads cut these trails when they first built the houses on adjacent properties?” she asked.
Naz’s brow dipped. “I didn’t know that.”
He’d never asked, really.
Roz nodded, smiling. “Yeah, I guess when they were kids, they had trails connecting their homes. So, that’s why they did it.”
Huh.
Naz made a mental note to ask his father about that if for no other reason than he thought it was kind of … interesting. And also because Roz told him. From the moment she shouted for her brother on that porch, Naz’s mind had soaked up each and every single word that came out of her mouth. His brain was a sponge; it absorbed anything and everything it found most fascinating.
That’s just how it worked.
And right now, everything in his world had shifted just like that. With nothing more than a girl he had known his whole life—but never really noticed until it was apparently the right time to—speaking. His brain flipped the fucking switch on him.
He no longer cared about running the numbers in his head for an upcoming gun run for his father. That was all easy going, anyway. Nothing for him to worry about even if he was known to constantly nitpick detail after detail until it was go time.
And he sure as hell didn’t care about the current equation he’d been stuck on for a week as he tried to assume an infinite loop of time ran on the premise of an oval shape instead of the traditional figure-eight shape. After all, the usual figure-eight symbol implied at some point, time would have to intersect when it crossed over. There was no proof that—if infinite—time ever crossed over. And because he was such a fucking shit about things, Naz wanted nothing more than to just see if he could make the damn math work for it.
But that didn’t matter.
None of it mattered.
None of it fucking mattered anymore because when Roz spoke, he saw her, his brain decided to shut the hell off in every other aspect … and there she was.
Here she was.
She was suddenly the most fascinating thing in his life, and everything else could wait. His brain didn’t want to factor in anything else at the moment. It was going to soak up every little thing she said or did because he needed—like he never needed anything else in his life before this very second—to know everything there was to know about her. He just had to.
“You’re doing it again,” Roz whispered.
Naz smirked. “What’s that?”
“Looking at me like that again.”
He still didn’t know what that meant, though.
“Does it bother you?”
“Not even a little bit, Naz.”
“Good to know.”
Naz realized then that they weren’t very far from the end of the trail that separated her family’s property from his. Shit. That meant they weren’t going to get to—
His thoughts silenced when he felt the light graze of Roz’s fingertips gliding along the side of his hand. Before he could glance down to make sure she had done what he thought she just did, her hand slipped in with his, and her fingers wove tightly around his.
“That’s better,” Roz said. “Right?”
Naz smiled. “Getting there.”
“How does it get better?”
“Let me show you.”
Roz’s eyes lit up with amusement. He thought all that bright blue staring at him looked far prettier when he sidestepped her to stop their walk. Naz moved in front of Roz without letting his grin falter for even a second. Her gaze never left his, and if anything, that smile of hers deepened into something sexier.
She knew exactly what he was going to do.
She was waiting for it.
Wanted it, even.
Keeping his one hand locked with hers, he used his other to slide around her waist, and tug her to him. Roz’s teeth nipped along her fuller bottom lip as she stared up at him through thick, long lashes.
“Getting better yet?” she asked.
“You tell me.”
“Almost, Naz.”
He was about to make it a lot better for both of them. All it took was his head tilting down, and his lips sweeping over hers with a soft kiss. Gentle and slow, at first. Teasing with his tongue striking out to meet hers when her lips parted for him. Enough for him to get a taste of the sugar on her tongue from whatever sweet drink she’d had earlier, and the cherry flavored gloss painting her lips.
Just enough.
Just a tease before he was pulling away. He’d only wanted that taste just to see … he found kissing her could quickly be addictive if he wasn’t careful. There was something about the way she watched him like that. All innocent in a blink, but absolutely capable of tempting his self-control in ways she probably didn’t even know.
And then she grabbed him by his shirt with her one hand, and pulled him closer for a harder, deeper kiss.
Hell, if she wanted it …
Naz let her pull away when she wanted to that time. That gleam in Roz’s eyes hadn’t left, though.
“Now it’s way better,” she whispered.
Naz had to agree.