Celt. (Den of Mercenaries Book 2) by London Miller

painting Amber was working with.
    And then, once it was quiet beyond the walls of the studio as well, she was able to submerge herself further.
    By the time she called it a day around eight, about the time in which she told Kyrnon she would be getting off, she sent a quick text to Gabriel to let him know she was finished and he was free to pick it up whenever he was ready—which wouldn’t be much longer—and gave him the time in which she would be back in the morning.
    As she was finally leaving, walking out of the gallery with keys in hand as she thought of what all she would need to complete the following day to stay on schedule, she realized she wasn’t alone.
    Kyrnon was half-leaning, half-standing beside his motorcycle, looking every bit as drool-worthy as he had the last time she’d seen him.
    “You never said you were coming,” she said as she finished locking up, turning back to face him.
    Had she thought there was a reason behind him asking what time she would be off? Sure. But she hadn’t expected to find him waiting out here once she came out.
    “Ach, and where’d the fun be in that?” Kyrnon asked, stepping up onto the sidewalk. “Ruins the surprise.”
    She didn’t fight the smile curling her lips. “And what’s the surprise?”
    Plucking the helmet off the seat of his bike, Kyrnon said, “We’re going to Coney Island.”
    “Are we?”
    “What could it hurt?” he asked, closing the distance between them, his eyes drifting over her front. “We could be eating funnel cake. Riding a Ferris wheel. It’ll be grand.”
    Laughing, she remembered the last time he said that. She probably should have been more hesitant, especially since she had spent the night in a bed with Rob—that was clue enough that she hadn’t been making the best decisions—but with that boyish smile on Kyrnon’s face coupled with the mischievous look in his eyes, how could she say no.
    She was reaching for the helmet before she even agreed to go.
    There was something about the shining lights, the way the city seemed to light up with new life that made Coney Island seem all the more wondrous at night.
    Amber might have lived in New York for the better part of six years, but she had only come out to the theme park a handful of times, and those had all been during the day.
    The sweet smell of promised funnel cake hung heavy in the air as they parked near the pier. And once Kyrnon had mentioned it, she was all for it.
    Just like before at the diner, he offered that scarred, calloused hand of his, closing his fingers around hers once she accepted. There was no hesitation in his step, nor any tension in his hold.
    He didn’t care that this was only their second time going out together—nor had he even cared the first.
    He didn’t care that others glanced in their direction, sometimes even twice, but that could have also been because he was worth looking at twice.
    They were just passing a gaming booth, one with netting hanging along the doors where giant panda bears were put up as prizes. Though she had always felt like the games were rigged somehow, that had never quelled her desire to try and win one. Once she had played against a kid—and you never take the win away from a kid—and the few times she came with Rob, he had never wanted to try his hand at one.
    She was twenty-five, she didn’t even have a place for that damn stuffed thing, but the idea of walking away from that panda was hard.
    “Want to have a go at it?” he asked, nodding his head in its direction, even as he steered her toward the booth.
    The attendant, with a name tag that read Tony, barely spared them a glance as he muttered, “Ten for the first game, five for the next. Three hits for a small prize, ten for the big ones.”
    “Have you ever beaten one of these?” she asked in return as he dug into his pocket, pulling out a twenty and slapping it down in front of the man that looked like he was three sheets to the wind.
    There was something about