Page 5 of Only You and Me

Her upper body shivers against mine and she angles her head toward me, our cheeks brushing against each other’s.

“You have a reputation, Ben.” My stomach drops.

“Don’t believe everything you hear.” Having her so close, wanting to touch her, to kiss her, is nearly killing me.

“Is it not true?” she whispers.

I turn my head so my lips caress her cheek. “Not all of it. And no one else matters. Only you and me.”

My heart pounds in my chest at her nearness. Her breathing is shallow, rapid. She turns her head achingly slowly until the corners of our mouths are touching.

“Don’t make me regret you, Benjamin. Please.”

Unable to stop myself, I take my hand off hers and run the backside of my fingertips down her cheek. “I won’t. I promise.”

And with that, our lips collide.

CHAPTER1

PRESENT DAY

TRINA

From across the room, I spot my sister and Shayna on the dance floor. I push through the people crowding O’Riley’s bar and make my way over to say hello. As soon as Emily spots me, she smiles that infectious smile of hers.

“Hey, sis!” Emily stretches up to kiss me on the cheek.

I eye their outfits and they both look great.

“Geez, you two pulled out all the stops tonight getting dressed up, didn’t you? Shayna, I’m guessing this is Emily’s work, right?”

Shayna smiles and snorts—something she can’t seem to avoid doing when she finds something amusing. “You know it is. Your sister thinks I need to find a frog to kiss at midnight.”

Before I can answer, a male voice chimes in. “Well, I don’t consider myself a frog, but I’ll volunteer for the task at hand.”

I look up to see that the speaker is an attractive, bulky guy, with a few friends standing behind him, near us.

“I’m Jared,” he says to Shayna. “And you are?”

“Not in?—”

I’m amused knowing where this was going before Emily cut her off. It’s clear she was going to be rude. “She’s Shayna,” Emily says. “And we’d love to dance with you and your friends.”

That’s all the encouragement the three men need before moving in closer to us.

Oh, hell no. I’m not about to get sucked into dancing with this group of guys. That I’m even out at O’Riley’s bar on New Year’s Eve is a stretch for me. I’m certainly not about to spend my last few hours of the year pretending to enjoy myself with strangers. No way, no how.I’m thirty-one-years old—I no longer do things I don’t want to.

I lean closer to Emily. “I’m out. Enjoy your new friends.”

“Aw, Trina. Come on,” she practically begs.

“Nope.” I smile at Emily and, as I turn to walk away, a grating voice I’d recognize anywhere stops me dead in my tracks. The voice of Ben Donley.

“Jones,” Ben says. “You should find some other dance partners.” I turn on my heel to watch the interaction. “That’s my sister,”—Ben gestures toward Shayna—“And these ladies are with us.”

Did he actually look at me as if he’s including me in his little pissing contest? He must be crazy. If he thinks he can speak for me, then I haven’t made my disdain for him clear enough in the nine plus years since he broke my heart. I’ll have to try harder.

My blood is boiling, and I don’t even hear the rest of the back and forth between Ben and Jones. I quickly eye the man’s two companions and pick the taller of the two. I’m five-foot-nine and I’m wearing heels, so I don’t want to seem like a giant.

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