Page 52 of That Kind of Guy

Holden choked on his beer and started laughing. Emmett gave Wyatt a lazy, smug grin. “What do you think it is, genius?”

Everyone looked at me with big grins. My face was on fire and shot Emmett a look that I hoped conveyedyou will pay for this.

“Somebody was getting busy on the couch,” someone sang.

I stood up. “Ha, ha, yes, oops. That’s where those went. I’m going to get another drink.”

Emmett stood and reached to grab the underwear out of Wyatt’s grasp, and I practically sprinted into the kitchen.

I leaned my butt against the counter and closed my eyes, exhaling. This thing with Emmett was getting out of control. His mom was coming wedding dress shopping with me. My gut twisted, thinking of how her eyes lit up. She was so excited. She didn’t have a daughter of her own, all she had was boys. Holden was a grump who couldn’t stand people, Wyatt only cared about surfing, and Finn didn’t stay in one place long enough to meet anyone, let alone get married, so I was her only shot at all the fun mother-in-law wedding stuff.

Mother-in-law.

I was such an asshole, leading Elizabeth and Sam on like this. They thought it was real. We’d done too good of a job convincing them, and now they were hooked.

Shit.

And that kiss.

Double shit.

I kept getting flashes of electricity down my spine. There’d been a pressure low in my belly since he grabbed me and kissed me. That kiss. I’dneverhad a kiss like that in my life. I’d seen kisses like that on the big screen and read about them in books but never even dreamed it could be like that.

I wanted to do it again.

I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself. This was getting out of control.Iwas getting out of control.

“Hey,” Emmett’s voice greeted me, and I opened my eyes.

“You rat,” I chided him, and he gave me a guilty grin and took the spot at the counter beside me. I ripped the underwear out of his hands.

“You know I’ll do what it takes to win. The look on your face when Wyatt pulled them out, it was worth that stupid turtle rescue,” he told me.

I couldn’t help myself, I laughed. “The look on your face in those pictures was worth my pretend underwear being whipped around the living room.”

He looked down at me and his gaze dropped to my mouth. “We’re even, for now.”

“I’m keeping them, you know,” I vowed with defiance.

“Oh, really?” His gaze lingered on my face, and I felt it again, that zing down my spine. I took a steadying breath, but it didn’t do a thing to slow my accelerating pulse. “I bought those myself. You’re going to wear them?”

I didn’t answer. The conversation had slipped into dangerous territory, fast. This was all supposed to be fake, but this zingy, electric feeling didn’t feel pretend.

“What was that, earlier?” he asked in a low voice, still gazing at me. His eyes were darkening.

“What do you mean?” I was breathless. My chest was tight, like I was on the top of a roller coaster about to drop.

“That kiss. Why’d you kiss me like that?” He glanced down to my mouth and then back up to my eyes.

I gave a little laugh of disbelief. “You’re the one who kissedme.”

His gaze dropped again to my mouth and lingered there. He turned so he was leaning his side against the counter, facing me head-on. I looked away but he reached up and tilted my chin back to him. I couldn’t breathe, my body felt so wound up and tense. When his fingers made contact with my jaw, I felt it right down between my legs.

“It was different,” he said.

All I could do was nod.

“You want to do it again?” he asked in a low voice. “For practice.”

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