AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Or any other time my lips have met hers and the world around us goes up in flames.
Not tonight, though. Tonight is for show, and we both know it.
I give her hair a little tug. “Now look up at me like you were looking at that Duke guy fromBridgertonlast week.”
Her shoulders quake with a soft laugh I feel through my chest. And then she gives me what I asked for, those big blue eyes peering up at me with a depth of emotion that isn’t real, but,damn, it’s believable.
In another life, it would be the kind of look that might change a man. Make him want to be better. More.
Here and now, it’s my cue to play a part.
I don’t let the softness of her lips distract me.
I don’t get pulled under by the scent of her perfume.
I just give her a kiss suitably chaste for family.
There. Done. No big deal at all.
* * *
Stormy
I should have knownone kiss wouldn’t be enough. Not with this crowd.
Once the clinking starts, it doesn’t stop.
We kiss again and again. And maybe it’s the champagne because we’ve been drinking it like water, or maybe I’m just fake-married to a world-class good sport… but somewhere along the way, Liam starts mixing things up with the kissing.
One quick.
One longer.
One showy.
One pushing the bounds of family-friendly.
One so silly it ends with both of us laughing and my family and friends cheering.
We’re in a crazy situation, so why not have some fun together.
Once.
It’s not like we’ll have any reason to make out again. We won’t. Just like we won’t be kissing anyone else either. For two years. So… why not?
Another round of clinking, and Liam gives in to one of those low almost-laughs and takes my hand, spinning me out like we’re dancing before reeling me back in so I end up flush against him, a little breathless, a lot curious to see what’s next.
“I’ve got an idea,” he says, nuzzling in so he’s speaking at my ear while that stubble does things to my neck that have me gasping his name.
“We’re turning this around.”
I don’t have any idea what he means, but then he catches my hand in a loose hold and starts playing with my fingers like he can’t get enough of touching me.
Which is fine.
It’s fun.
Good.
