The Best Thing Yet by McKenna Jeffries and Aliyah Burke

friends. After all, with him being friends with Tarak, they would see each other. No need for it to be uncomfortable between them.
    A few dates and then you are in the clear. You can do this Arissa. With her mind set on the course of action, Arissa ignored the twinge of regret.

Chapter Seven
     
     
     
    Man knows how to be on time. Arissa knew that from the cruise ship, he’d always been spot on. She pressed the button on the security system fitted with a camera to see who was outside to let him in through the outer door. She smoothed her hands down her jeans as she walked down the stairs towards the front door of her apartment. The clock on the wall by the door showed nine on the dot. Can’t ignore it any longer. Halting before the door in the good-sized foyer, she tugged on her sweatshirt and sighed. The weather had dropped about twenty degrees with the cold front that had moved through late last night.
    Quit stalling, she reprimanded herself. One final deep breath, then she swung the door open. Only to promptly lose it. Deiter stood there and, like it had the first time she saw him, her breath left her in a rush.
    He wore a steel grey sweatshirt, blue jeans that amplified the strength in his legs, and dark brown hiking boots. Deiter removed his sunglasses and pierced her with his intense blue-grey eyes. Her heart—the traitorous organ—pounded with renewed want.
    I did say I could do this, right?
    “Morning, beautiful,” he said as he leaned close and brushed their lips together.
    She cursed him repeatedly as he withdrew before she was ready for him to. “Good morning,” she replied.
    “Ready?”
    She could do this. Reaching to grab her garment bag, which contained her dress for dinner, from where it hung on the coat rack, as well as her purse, she shrugged. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
    He seemed to stare at her for a few moments, as if assessing her mood, before he gestured her to leave. As she closed the door, ensuring the lock caught, she wasn’t at all surprised when he relieved her of her items. In silence, they walked to where he’d parked. He opened the back of an older model silver Dodge Durango. Once her things were stowed, he held her door before making his way to the driver’s seat.
    “Are you planning on giving me the silent treatment, Arissa?” he queried after they’d been on the road for a while.
    “No,” she said, avoiding his gaze and glancing around the interior of his vehicle.
    “So it’s to be one word answers then?”
    He seemed so calm she ground her jaw. “Looking for a soliloquy?” she asked.
    “I already apologised for how things went on the ship, Arissa,” he said.
    “I know. I heard you.” She gazed out of the window.
    “But?” he prompted.
    She shrugged. “They’re just words.”
    His angry rumble filled the vehicle. She tore her attention from the passing scenery and stared at him. He had a tic in his jaw and he gripped the wheel so tight his knuckles were white.
    “What, Deiter?” She shifted to angle her body to him. “Did you honestly think because you kissed me last night and grabbed my ass things would be okay?”
    “No. I expected my words to be believed.” She heard a hint of his accent and it made her shiver. Damn accents were an aphrodisiac to her.
    “I’m not following.”
    He turned off onto a narrow dirt road. “You’re acting like you want me to crawl through fire for your forgiveness when I had no choice but to go.”
    She thought about it for a bit as they moved over the bumpy road. Deiter didn’t try to fill the silence with chatter. He waited. He was right, she wanted him to suffer as she had. Still, it had hurt to not know for those long months.
    “And if you’d had my information?” she posed the question.
    He stopped the Durango and faced her. His eyes burned with a feral heat. “ I would have been the one to help you move.”
    Shivers of want licked at her like flames. She even ignored his possessiveness. True, she didn’t