The intensity of our kissing calmed and slowed until our lips rested together. We both smiled.

“I don’t remember. Did I even say hi?” Ryan whispered, joking with me.

“Yes. You had me at hello!” I giggled on his lips.

He chuckled in my mouth.

“I think you have me confused with another famous actor,” he said, kissing me in between laughs.

His mouth locked back on mine, convincing me that this amazing connection between us deserved a chance to grow.

Both of our hands had already found skin; his hands were under my shirt and midway up my back. One of my hands had skimmed down his neck and underneath the collar of his T-shirt.

I had his bottom lip between my teeth when thoughts of Marie walking in on our make-out session started to put a damper on my lust.

“You know… before we get busted…”

I slipped off the counter and into his arms.

Ryan gathered his bag from the floor. I was amused to see that he had to adjust his pants. His arousal was definitely noticeable.

I peeked out the door before attempting to sneak him from the kitchen to the stairwell. Most of the crowd had disappeared. There were only about twenty people left in the pub, but I still wanted to get him upstairs unnoticed.

Ryan had just slipped through the stairwell door as Marie came around the corner at the same moment. She was looking for me and I was busted.

Her face broke into an exultant grin when she saw what I was up to. “Ryan?” she mouthed as she pointed to the door.

I shrugged. My shameful smile was enough of a confirmation for her.

“Glad to see you’re taking my advice! Go on, I’ll lock up. There are only a couple of people here. Pete and I will take care of it. Go, have a great night!”

I was halfway up the steps when Marie called me back. I tossed my key to Ryan.

“I’ll be right back,” I said to him, nodding for him to go on without me. I trotted down the steps and almost ran right into Marie.

“You forgetting something?” she teased, holding out a chilled bottle of champagne.

Ryan had his coat off and was in the living room when I walked into my apartment.

“Gift from Marie.” I handed the bottle to him. “She saw you. Sorry,” I apologized. “Don’t worry, she won’t say anything.”

“Do you want me to open this?” he asked, even though he already started to peel the foil off the top.

“Sure. Let me get some glasses.”

He popped the cork and poured as I held the glasses. Ryan slipped one glass from my hand and held it up.

“To… possibilities.” He tapped his glass gently into mine and flashed a sultry smile at me.

“What time do you think you’ll be done tonight?” he asked, sipping his champagne.

“Actually, I’ve been given the rest of the night off. Marie and Pete will close tonight.”

“Really? You’re done for the night?” He sounded pleased.

“Yep. We weren’t that busy for some reason. Guess there was some big commotion going on at the Synful Grill tonight – took most of my customers away.”

He tilted his head to give me an annoyed look.

“The only reason I know that is because one of my customers received a message that you were there. She said your location was posted on the Internet.”

“Unbelievable,” he muttered. I could tell that upset him.

“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

He stopped me. “No, no, I’m not mad at you. It’s just messed up. I can’t even go out to eat without it being a huge pain in the ass. It’s like having a stalker, only they travel in packs. I don’t know why they even give a shit.”

He started rubbing his face hard, so I tried to think of something that would get his mind off of this path.

“Hey, would you help me a second?” I held out my hand to pull him up from his seat. He willingly followed me to the kitchen.

“Can you pull the other trays of steaks out of the fridge? I need to flip them.” I had fifteen steaks marinating for our Sunday dinner.

“These steaks look awesome! What’s in the juice?” he asked.

“Ah, that’s a trade secret. I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you!” I teased him. “I’m going to need help carrying these up to the roof tomorrow. Can I count on you to help me?”

“Absolutely!” he replied, wincing at me like I would need to ask that of him.

I could tell that his upset mood was slowly lifting. His gears were pretty easy to switch.

“The marinade is only the first part of the process. There’s a whole grilling technique too.”

“Is that a trade secret too, or are you going to share that?”

“Truthfully I stole the idea from an article in Maxim Magazine.”

“What are you doing reading Maxim? Looking for your picture?” He nudged me with his elbow.

“Yeah right! My uncle got my dad a subscription for Christmas one year and there was an entire article on how to grill food.” I shrugged. “So how do you like your steak? Are you a rare or well-done kind-of guy?”

“Medium-well. I’m not crazy about seeing my food bleed.” He shuddered.

“Me too!” I said, shocked that we had another thing in common.

When we finished in the kitchen, Ryan started to peruse my DVD collection. “Can we watch a movie? You have one that I’d like to see.”

He kicked his shoes off and made himself comfortable on the couch. When I sat down next to him, he held his hand out to me.

“Hey, come here,” he whispered. He repositioned his body so I was lying on his chest.

Ryan smiled at me and kissed my forehead softly. His finger gently raised my chin and he kissed me tenderly. I was surprised that he didn’t try to make out with me again. Instead, after a few loving kisses, he just held me in his arms while we watched the movie.

I’d seen the movie he chose a few times before, so it was hard for me to really pay attention to it - especially since I was snuggled in his arms.

Ryan was softly stroking my hair and my back and it made me very relaxed. I was so comfortable lying on him, I felt myself drifting.

“Taryn, sweetie. Wake up,” Ryan whispered groggily. He shifted his body underneath me so he could sit up.

I rubbed my eyes and noticed the clock – it was a few minutes till two. Ryan slipped into the bathroom.

I waited for Ryan to finish so I could take my turn.

“Do you mind if I stay?” he asked. “If not, I can always jog to the hotel. Hopefully the paparazzi are sleeping.”