“They play old classics here. Come on. We might have the place to ourselves.”
There was a scattering of people inside the theater here and there, but it was close to empty as they settled in the back row. They ate their popcorn as the movie started up, where some damsel in distress witnessed a crime scene and was on the run. The hero came in to save her from death before she returned the favor, and the two spent most of the first hour getting away from the goons. When a particular scenario played, she gasped.
“He’s a villain?”
Nico chuckled and shook his head in disbelief. “That threw me in a loop, too.”
She tilted her head and contemplated it. “I don’t think he’s the villain, though.”
“Want to bet on that?”
It turned out that the guy was pretending to work for the bad group as part of his infiltration and had thought the woman a nuisance until they had to rely on each other. She gasped again.
“I knew it! He was only pretending so his cover won’t be blown,” she said, giddy with the knowledge.
“It’s so cliché, though,” he grumbled, pretending disappointment. But the slight grin told her he was pleased with the ending, too, and they settled once more as the next movie started.
Fifteen minutes in, Anne grew bored as a family moved into an ancient house and a series of mysterious events began to haunt them. She glanced at Nico, studying the outline of his face as lights played out from the movie while the rest of the theater remained in darkness. The man’s side profile was intense, so absorbed on the screen…but not for long.
As if sensing her gaze, he turned his head, piercing her with the same intense look. She swallowed when his survey traveled down to her legs, where her toes curled.
“Bored?” he asked. “Do you want to leave?”
She shook her head. “I like it here.”
“Do you want to make out?”
His tone hinted that he was teasing, but something on her face had his features darkening. Before she could answer, he was leaning in to capture her lips, a testing kiss that caught her by surprise. Even so, it was already instinctive to kiss him back, and what started as a test became a rising desire that spread tingles over every inch of her body.
Refusing to be the only one feeling it, she searched his tongue and sucked on it, then rubbed his thigh up and down. When she was inches from crawling on his lap and forgetting propriety, Nico broke the kiss with a sharp exhale and his thumb resting under her one breast. His lips skimmed down her shoulder as he breathed her in.
“I wanted to dare you if we could be quiet here, but I don’t think I can be quiet,” he said in a low, silky voice against her ear before his tongue played with her earlobe. “Anne…”
“What?”
“I need you.”
Perhaps she could have denied him if it was a different scenario, but the rawness in his voice gave her no defense. Anne nodded. Then she followed in a daze as he led her out of the theater room but didn’t head for the exit as expected. They passed by the restrooms and towards the back.
“I heard some people rendezvous in public bathrooms,” she mused.
“Dirty. Unless it’s a private one.”
“Where are we going?”
She was backed into a wall and slammed with a thorough kiss that left her knees shaking.
“I don’t know,” he rasped, desperation brimming. “Supply closet?”
She eyed a door nearby, ducked from his grasp, and opened it. She stopped at the sight of the empty projection room, but he was already closing the door. Anne wandered to the front, the glass window allowing them a view of the movie still playing.
“There must be someone in the other projection room,” she said, checking out the controls.
“Not this one.”
He came behind her, body heat radiating against her back as he took hold of her waist. Kisses rained all over her shoulder once more as his hips aligned with hers, not turning her around.
“There’s a monster in the house,” she predicted, gaze glued to the screen. “Not a ghost but something else.”