Page 56 of Every Little Kiss
Only Liv was a single mom with a complicated past, which was new territory for him—territory he wasn’t sure how to navigate. Flirting was one thing, but taking it to the next level when he knew he was leaving, knew she wasn’t a casual kind of woman, was completely different—only she looked like she was about to prove him wrong by making the first move.
And God help them both if she did.
“Be sure, Liv,” he warned. “Because once you go there, you can’t come back.”
She didn’t make a move either way, and neither did he, instead waiting for her to decide. Watching her struggle with the finality of it all. Either way she went, one road would come to an end.
A gentleman would have ended it for her, but gentle was the last thing Ford was feeling. Not when he was a breath away from getting a taste of that peace he’d been so desperate to find.
And then it happened. He saw it in the way her body softened and her eyes bore into his. Yup, in one breath, Ford went from the unluckiest son of a bitch to walk the planet to the luckiest in a single, simple statement that changed everything.
“I’m tired of going back,” Liv said.
It took about three seconds for it to register that while Ford stood under that old oak tree, the bark digging into his hands, less than five miles from the site that had ruined so much, Olivia Preston, the woman whom he couldn’t get out of his head, was kissing him.
It wasn’t one of those pent-up, get-down-to-business kind of kisses Ford had become accustomed to over the past few years. Nope, this kiss was completely foreign to him, in a way that was familiar and comforting. She brushed his lips once, then another tentative touch, and Ford gripped the trunk harder, wanting to let her set the pace. A pace that was so agonizingly slow, he thought he’d go crazy with want.
“Ford,” she murmured in soft invitation, and he’d never RSVP’d so fast in his life. Cradling the back of her neck, Ford took over the kiss, languidly teasing and tasting until Liv let out a little sigh of contentment.
He slid his arms around her, pulling her close, and damn if she didn’t rise on her toes to meet him. Pressing her lips to his in a kiss so sweet, something more than lust settled in his chest.
Ford knew right then, in that field, that when it came to this woman, it was the gentle that was going to kill him. One touch and he knew that nothing could be better than this.
