Page 107 of Party Favors

Which was probably my fault because he knew I’d gone on a date with Adrian. He had been polite and kind, because he was Max, but he might be really upset with me.

I shifted into automatic mode, my brain disconnected from the rest of my body. I continued greeting guests, explaining the different stations and pointing them over in Sunny’s direction so that she could say hello as well. I also watched Max the entire time as he interacted with different people, laughing and smiling as he drank his champagne.

Hmph. I wished this weren’t an event and that I could knock back a couple of glasses. I felt like I needed something to help me calm down. My poor battered nerves were now completely on edge. It took everything I had to put a fake smile on and pretend like Max wasn’t in the same room with me and that I wasn’t freaking out.

I counted the hundredth person, a little bit surprised that everyone who had RSVP’d yes had actually showed up. I went into the kitchen to give Jeanine the heads-up that I’d seat the guests in about half an hour.

“Got it,” she said. “Oh, and by the way, the mother-in-law was asking about a specific vase that she had in the living room and can’t find now. She wants someone to locate it.”

That someone would have to be me.

I headed upstairs and into one of the rooms where we’d shoved all the furniture. I hadn’t been up here to direct the movers and they had just sort of put things wherever, which made it difficult to get around. I climbed over benches and around tables, looking for the vase. I thought I spotted it behind a couch and had just started to climb over to reach it when I heard, “Everly?”

Of course. Of course Max would come looking for me when I was face down, butt up. I immediately stood and turned toward him.

He closed the door behind him. We stood there in silence for a few beats, a heavy longing filling the space between us. Then he said, “I’m going to kiss you. If you don’t want me to, tell me now.”

His words thrilled me, the demand and wanting I heard in them. I liked take-charge Max.

With a masculine grace and ease, he started skirting around the furniture like it wasn’t even there, never taking his eyes off me.

My heart was thudding so hard that I was sure he could hear it, and my eager anticipation built with each step he took.

When he reached me, he stood so close that I felt a phantom imprint of him on my skin. My heart was stumbling over itself and I could see his pulse beating hard at the base of his throat.

I whispered, “Shouldn’t we talk?”

“After.”

This time I knew what was coming. And instead of it easing off the anticipation, it made it worse. I wanted his mouth on mine.

Now.

In answer to my unspoken demand, Max slid a hand behind my head and kissed me.

He did it like he’d been trapped underwater for the last five minutes and the only way that he could breathe again was by kissing me. It was desperate and frantic and needy and everything I could have ever asked for.

There was no question that Max wanted me.

It also immediately let me know that our last kiss hadn’t been a one-off, or some kind of cosmic aberration. No, Max really did just kiss that well, like he was a professional athlete and this was his event and he’d done nothing but practice for the last ten years straight.

It also meant that Vella was right and I hadn’t tricked him into it at the Empire State Building. He hadn’t done anything he didn’t want to do, given the way he was kissing me right now.

Then everything blurred together as we wrapped ourselves around each other. It would have been impossible to see where one of us began and the other ended. Yet I still needed to get closer to him.

He seemed to have the same need, as his hand found the warm, sensitized skin at the back of my neck, urging me closer.

His scorching mouth was firm, his fiery kisses adding fuel to the fire that was burning between us. I was exhilarated, lightheaded, my nerve endings vibrating with bliss and heat.

I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of pleasure that seemed to travel through every part of my body. I had missed him so much.

And I could tell from the fervent, bruising way he kissed me that he’d missed me just as desperately.

He leaned against me and I felt like I was falling ... until I realized that I actually was falling, that he had accidentally pushed me back onto the couch I’d been climbing on when he entered the room.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for that to happen,” he said, his low voice sounding chagrined.

I, however, was quite happy with how things were turning out and just smiled at him.

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