Page 22 of Auction Time
I just looked at him. I didn’t even know that about myself. I knew I blushed a lot, and heaps more than the average person, and that it didn’t take much for me to go beetroot red, but I didn’t realize there was a difference. Or that I did it when I was lying.
“You… can tell all that about me from one evening?”
“No, that’s from high school.” He chuckled and continued to stare at me.
“Well, I’m not lying, so you must have made all of that up.”
He laughed at that. “You had a lie ready for me every time I asked you what you were looking at when you were obviously staring at me. You’d pull whatever the hell you could think of out of a hat if you could. A bird, the grass, shit. Lies. And your cheeks would turn pink like they are now. But …just for me.”
I straightened and swallowed hard. Damn my stupid self. Why did I have to be so transparent? Ugh.
“Still think I have no effect on you?” he taunted.
“Of course.” I would be stubborn until it killed me if I had to be.
The corners of his lips turned up into a wicked grin. “Okay, then… if that’s true, kiss me.”
My lips parted, and I sucked in a sharp breath. “I will not kiss you.” Much as I was now thinking about it, that would be like opening Pandora’s box.
“It’s payment for the food.”
“I never invited you to dinner; you invited yourself.”
“And you ate all the food with no complaint. Ate it right up.”
I stood up and glared at him, shaking my head. “Cole, you are weird and… just plain weird. What the hell is the matter with you?”
He rose to his feet. “I just have different tactics. Come on, it’s just a little kiss, which will have no effect on you. Unless I’m right and you were lying.”
No way was I going to allow him to think he was right. Even though he was.
“Fine.” I marched up to him, grabbed his shirt so I could pull him down to meet my lips, and planted a kiss on his lips.
This was the part of me that was daring. The part that never thought first before she did things.
A little kiss?
No.
The minute my lips brushed against his, a blast of electricity shot through me. The heat of it pulsed from his lips to mine and glued me to the spot, rendering me useless to myself.
The shock parted my lips, and the devil took advantage of the moment to sweep his tongue into my mouth. He must have known that all I needed was one taste and my knees would turn to water, my brain to mush.
Warm fingers cupped my face so he could deepen the kiss and amplify it, leaving me breathless.
It was the contact of my body melting against his hard chest that awoke my awareness, and I jumped back breathing hard.
I could almost see the triumph in his eyes, along with something else.
This was the part where I was supposed to tell him he had no effect on me. I was supposed to tell him I wasn’t lying; except I couldn’t talk.
And worse, I couldn’t when he smiled that devilishly handsome smile at me, like he could read my mind.
He stepped toward me and loomed close to my face. I almost thought he was going to kiss me again, but he didn’t.
“Tomorrow at two o’clock at the stadium. Two questions only. You can ask me the rest on Friday.At my place.” He chuckled and backed away.
Mischief and that wild sex appeal oozed from him. I watched him go, and while I willed the las trace of logic to help me to be careful, it felt like a fruitless task after that kiss.
