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Misty and Noelsnuck out an hour ago, and now we’re hugging my parents and thanking them for the party. I say goodbye to the older relatives I don’t see at work and watch as Liam presses a kiss to Great Aunt Edith’s papery cheek.
She’s smitten. Most everyone is.
He might not be mine to keep, but for tonight, I’m crushing pretty hard on this guy.
Somewhere between Edith’s table and where I’m standing by the door, Liam’s picked up a glass. And a knife.
My heart skips to double time, and that flutter in my belly goes a little crazy as he stops beside me and leans in toward my ear. “Two years is a long time.”
I nod, a little breathless as he raises the glass, tinging the knife against it a few times before setting them aside.
And then he slides one hand beneath my hair so his thumb brushes my jaw. Tipping my head back, he lowers his mouth and kisses me one last time.
It’s slow and sweet. A gentle caress of his lips against mine.
A sip.
A taste.
A seductive pull that begins at my mouth and moves through my chest and belly before stirring an achy pulse low and deep in my center.
Oh God, this kiss makes me want more. This kiss makes me—
It’s over.
Liam pulls back, and there’s nothing playful in his eyes. No more mischief. Just this intensity that tries to warn me off but only lures me closer.
“Liam.”
He blinks, and all that intensity is gone like it never existed. Maybe it didn’t.
Maybe it was just me caught up in a moment clearly meant to be the end. Not… Not whatever I was thinking and probably telegraphing with my eyes when he broke away to put the lid back on the box labeled “Fun and Games.”
“Ready to go, gorgeous?”
Shaking off the moment that got the better of me, or at least clearing it from my eyes and face, I nod. “Let’s go.”
18
Liam
Traffic’s light on the Kennedy, but the drive home is long enough for us to sober up. Long enough to notice there’s a tension in the back of this car that shouldn’t be here.
I shouldn’t have kissed her that last time. Who am I kidding? I shouldn’t have kissed her at all.
Not beyond the cursory closed-mouthed business that absolutely would have gotten the job done.
But no. I had to make it fun.
Try to impress her.
Add some flair.
Push the boundaries.
Tease my way back into the sweet lushness of her mouth and the taste that’s haunted me for a year.
