Page 50 of The Christmas Catch
Scrap that.
This was one of the best kisses she’deverhad in her whole damn entire life.
Full stop.
CHAPTER16
Holy. Fucking. Hell.
That was the only thought rolling through Ali’s mind, lit up in neon and flashing nonstop. She was kissing Morgan Scott. Scrap that. She wassnoggingMorgan Scott. Morgan currently had her tongue deep in Ali’s mouth, and every nerve ending in her body was on high alert. She hardly dared to blink in case she woke up, and this was all a dream. But she knew it wasn’t. She also knew that if they hadn’t been in public and shackled by a metal bar, Ali would have straddled Morgan by now, and performed all manner of things not fit for public consumption.
She’d waited over two decades for this. Whatever the initial reason, this kiss was no normal kiss. It was a kiss for the ages. A kiss to tell the grandkids. A kiss that would keep her warm forever.
But that was only in Ali’s mind.
For Morgan, it was purely to fulfil a teenage dream.
Ali had to remember that.
But right now, with Morgan’s lips on hers, desire flamed through Ali. Dammit, she wished they weren’t in public. If this was how Morgan Scott kissed for fun, what might it feel like if she actually meant it? Ali’s brain shook at the thought. A few minutes ago, she’d thought her ears might drop off with cold. Now, Morgan’s kisses were her own central heating system. Ali’s cheeks warmed, her belly too. Even her calves heated by a couple of degrees.
Eventually, Morgan pulled away, but kept her lips within touching distance. Over her shoulder, Christmas trees winked in the distance. Then the Christmas market flashed by.
Ali stared, her breath causing small plumes of smoke in front of them. She breathed Morgan in. She smelled of bergamot and Ali’s dreams.
A smile flickered on Morgan’s face. “Hot damn.”
Ali sucked in the biggest breath of her life. “I agree.” She snagged Morgan’s gaze. The wheel kept on turning. As did life, the universe. But something had forever changed in her world. Something she couldn’t row back on. She now knew what it felt like to kiss Morgan Scott.
Now, all she wanted was to do it again.
“It worked, by the way.” She leaned forward and pressed her lips to Morgan’s once more. This time, she left them there for one, two, three seconds. Long enough for sparks to fly around every inch of her body. Long enough to make her toes flex. Long enough to know pulling them apart would be tinged with regret. But she did it anyway.
“The kiss,” Ali continued. “It took my mind off the height and the wheel collapsing and us meeting an untimely demise skewered on top of a Christmas tree.” She stared at Morgan. “For that, thank you.”
Morgan’s cheeks burned red beneath her Christmas pudding hat, and she let out a throaty laugh. “A Christmas skewer. It’s no way to die.”
Ali shifted in her seat. She unwrapped her arm from Morgan’s neck. “But also, that kiss was… unexpected.” Understatement of the century.
Was Morgan going to laugh this off? No.
She looked away, then shook her head slightly. Eventually, she turned back.
“It was very unexpected. A bit like this whole trip.”
Their gazes met again.
Ali couldn’t move, couldn’t think. But she was 99 per cent sure there was desire in Morgan’s eyes, too. Just as there had been desire in her kiss from the moment their lips had connected. It still pulsated through Ali. The wheel kept turning. The lights flashed. Ali’s mind was a wasteland of previously coherent thought, now reduced to rubble. The waft of possibility hung in the air, the scorch of Morgan’s lips on hers. Ali gripped the metal bar as the wheel soared over the precipice again.
But this time, she wasn’t afraid of the height or the wheel. It didn’t matter if the world around her collapsed now. Her own world had just shifted, and her focus was completely on that. On Morgan Scott. On when she could kiss her again.
“Did I win the prize of best kiss on a Ferris wheel? Better than whatshisname?” It was a daring question. Flirtatious, even. If you’d asked her this morning if she’d utter those words, she’d have told you not to be so ridiculous. But that was then. Now, after a kiss like that, everything had changed. Now, there were even more questions floating around Ali’s brain.
Morgan’s laugh came from her stomach, loud and throaty. “I would say you obliterated it. Like whatshisname never happened.” Morgan’s eyes focused fully on Ali’s. “You are the Ferris wheel kissing champ.”
Those words exploded in her like a firework, the after effects raining down and tickling her skin.
Now she was sure of it. This wasn’t just one way.
