"I already told you. I don't want you in bed--literally or metaphorically--with that man. He's bad news. Did you ask him about his financial issues? You do not need to attach your cart to that horse. Sooner or later, he's going to disappoint you."
Anger bubbled inside her. She wanted to tell him to go to hell. That this wasn't about her--it was about him not getting his own way. About her being with Spencer again, despite her father jumping through every hoop imaginable.
She wanted to say all of that. But she held herself in check. Instead, all she said was, "Daddy, I think it's time for you to go."
Then she turned her back on him and walked toward Spencer, hoping to God that she wouldn't hyperventilate and pass out on the way.
"Is he still there?" she asked.
"Sending me daggers with his eyes," Spencer confirmed.
"Kiss me."
His eyes went wide.
"Dammit, Spencer, kiss me."
He did, and it was exactly the kind of kiss she craved. A kiss with tongue and teeth that ricocheted through her, making her ache with need. Hard and wild and demanding and claiming. That was the key. She wanted him to claim her. To own her. To prove to her, her father, everyone that she was his again, even if she really wasn't. Not yet.
But, dammit, she wanted to be.
When they broke apart, they were both breathing hard. "Tonight," she said. "When and where?"
His grin was mischievous as he handed her a folded slip of paper. "I wrote it down for you. Take an Uber. You won't need your car. And yes," he said, as she unfolded the paper, "it's a test."
Meet me where we first kissed. 7pm.
She looked back up at him and grinned. "I'll be there by six forty-five."
Chapter Fourteen
At almost eight hundred feet above sea level, Mount Bonnell stood as the highest point in Austin, and pretty much everyone in the city had been there at one time or another to see the view of the city, Lake Austin, and the surrounding hills.
Spencer had been coming there since he was a kid. He'd climb the one hundred and two steps all the way to the top, then circumvent the pretty, paved picnic area for the rougher wilderness beyond. He'd find a good, flat spot in the dirt and scrub, then put down a blanket, sit, and watch the world move along below him.
When he got older and began thinking about renovating homes, he'd take a notebook and sketch out his plans.
The place had always held a magical quality to
him, and even though he was rarely alone there, he liked to think of it as his own.
Which was why when he brought Brooke there the evening of the second day he'd known her, he'd been as jumpy as if he'd sat in a pile of fire ants. He'd met her only twenty-four hours before, and yet he'd taken her out after he'd repaired her tire, and that non-date had been about the most perfect evening he'd spent with a woman.
He'd been smitten--no other word for it. And though he hadn't kissed her that night, it had been all he'd thought about until the next evening when she joined him on this iconic outcropping.
That was then. But things hadn't changed much, because having Brooke beside him at the park was still all he could think about. And even though it was barely six forty-five, he kept turning back to the stairs to see if she was coming.
And then, like a miracle, there she was.
She stood on the landing at the top of the stairs, the stunning spread of sky and trees a poor backdrop to her beauty. She wore jeans and a T-shirt and looked as sexy as he'd ever seen her.
Frowning, she cupped her hand at her forehead as she glanced around, obviously searching for him. He waited a second--stupid, but he liked knowing that she was seeking him out. Then he stepped into her view, and was rewarded with a smile as bright as sunshine.
"Hey," she said. "Fancy meeting you here."
"Come on," he said, holding out his hand, and then leading her away from the stairs to a nearby dirt path. They followed it a bit, then pushed their way through some juniper branches to a secluded section he'd found when he'd walked the area upon arriving.
"This is perfect," she said, looking at the blanket he'd spread over the rocks and dirt. A few feet ahead, the hill seemed to fall away below them. And though he wasn't about to let her get too close to the edge, even when they were seated, they had a view of the river. And, soon, they'd have a view of an amazing sunset.