Page 25 of Wrecked
“Well…I, ah…you see…” Before she could come up with some lame excuse, he sucked in a breath and tugged her forward, knocking her off balance. She collided with his narrow chest, and his arms locked around her, trapping hers at her sides. Then she watched in horror as his mouth came toward her. His open mouth. It landed on her face. She guessed he was going for her lips but missed the mark completely. His tongue slid across her cheek, then finding its way to her lips, stabbed at them several times.
She stood there stunned, unable to move as that lizard tongue tried to force entry into her mouth, sliding across her teeth. In that awful moment, she realized that this was Gerald’s first kiss. It had to be. No one kissed this badly, unless they’d never done it before, and even then most people managed it a hell of a lot better than this.
God, it was disgusting.
But now she felt even worse. This very sweet, incredibly boring man thought he was kissing the pants off her, and more than likely believed he was doing a stellar job—and all she wanted to do was bite his stabby, sloppy tongue off and shove it down his throat.
He pulled back, and she dragged in a much needed lungful of oxygen.
“Wow,” Gerald whispered.
Could this get any worse? “Um, Gerald…look.” He loosened his arms, and she quickly wriggled free. “That was lovely, but I’m not sure we should…”
He reached for her again, completely ignoring her. Panting like he’d run a marathon as he came in for a second kiss. Head dipped, eyes closed, mouth wide open. So wide she could see his freakin’ tonsils. Like he had every intention of eating her face off.
She gave him a light shove to get his attention. “Gerald…”
Nope, nobody home. The guy was more than likely empowered by what she was now one-hundred percent certain was his first kiss. And by the looks of him, determined to get his second. One of his hands veered downward, toward her chest, and she slapped it away, shoving at him, harder this time. “Gerald. Stop. Snap out of it.”
“Piper. Oh, sweet, Piper.” That mouth kept on coming.
Lord. Oh, dear lord.
“I’m sorry, but…” She ducked away from his lips. “I said, stop…Gerald.”
The next thing she knew, Gerald was wrenched back, arms wind-milling at his sides. The guy made a strangled squeal before landing on his ass on the front lawn. Her gaze darted up and collided with Cole’s wild one. Chest heaving, teeth gritted.
Shirtless. Again.
He was wearing black nylon shorts, and nothing else. Sweat coated his body like he’d been in the middle of a workout, which was highly likely since every muscle seemed to bulge and ripple as he prowled toward her handsy but harmless date.
Cole grabbed him by the front of his shirt and dragged him to his feet, then got in his face. “When a woman says stop, you fucking stop.”
Gerald's mouth flapped, eyes going round as saucers. “I didn’t… I can assure you I wouldn’t…”
Piper snapped out of her stunned stupor, which wasn’t easy because Cole was sweaty and shirtless, and rushed forward. “Let him go, Cole. He didn’t mean anything by it, did you, Gerald?”
She felt like she was in a hostage negotiation. The look on Cole’s face, the way he had hold of Gerald’s shirt in a white-knuckled grip, the pure aggression he was throwing off. It was unnerving as hell but, alarmingly, also a major turn-on. She had to be wrong in the head. There could be no other reason for it. Poor Gerald was dangling from the end of Cole’s fist, and she was getting tingles in her most happy of happy places.
“N-no, I didn’t.” He shook his head so fast his face was nothing but a blur.
Cole let him drop to his feet, stepped back, and pointed to his car. “Go.” Gerald looked over at her, and she opened her mouth to apologize when her psychotic neighbor barked, “Now.”
And he did. Like a flash, Gerald streaked across the lawn and was in his Chevy Malibu and tearing down the street a minute later. All concern for the speed limit forgotten.
She spun around to face Cole, planting her hands on her hips. “Oh. My. God. I can’t believe you just did that.”
“Did you want him to kiss you?”
That deep, growly, ravaged voice lifted goose bumps on her skin. “Well…no, but I…”
His nostrils flared. “Did you ask him to stop? Twice?”
“Yes, I did, but I was going to…”
“What?” he snarled. “What were you going to do?”
Holy shit. She’d wanted to get Cole’s attention, but this wasn’t what she’d had in mind. The man was furious. Like red eyes and puffing smoke from nostrils angry.
