"The pleasure was mine," she said breathily.
He nodded at me. "Joseph."
"Pierre." I nodded back. "Take care."
He walked away, and we were alone.
The second she opened her mouth, I cut her off. "I was playing the part."
"All too well," she shot back, angrily sipping her drink. "Blah blah blah. Seriously?"
I snorted on a laugh. "I thought he'd like it."
"And he did," she said in disgust, shaking her head and turning her back on her former idol. She headed in the opposite direction, to a quiet corner of the room, and I followed her. Clearly, she wanted to talk, and it was best done in privacy—or as much privacy as a room like this allowed. "I'd rather he be an embezzler than a chauvinistic pig."
"He might be both," I supplied helpfully.
"Thanks for the reminder." She took another angry sip. "Did you discover anything useful?"
"Not really, just established a connection with him, told him I was here with you, that I'm a writer, and he told me his wife died." I shrugged. "Basic stuff."
"That's good."
I hesitated. "He has a thing for you. Kept turning the topic your way and staring, watching for you to come back. Don't get too close to him."
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, father."
"I'm serious. I got mixed vibes from him, most of them non-threatening, but I'm not taking any chances. I don't want to risk him getting too close to you."
"I'm not getting too close to anyone." She nudged me, distracted. "Oh God. He's here. Quick, hug me or something."
"What?"
"Sam. Ugh. He's coming this way." She wrapped her arms around me and rested her cheek on my chest. It was scary how natural that felt. "Did he see us?"
I curled my hand behind the back of her skull, cradling it gently as I kissed the top of her head. Again, way too fucking natural. Behind us, her ex faltered, his eyes narrowing, but he kept walking our way. "Yes, he's still coming."
She moaned into my chest. "He just won't take the hint."
Raising my brow, I stared the dude down, but still, he came, so I did the only thing I could think of. I backed her against the wall and lowered my face to hers again, hoping it looked realistic enough to actually appear as if we were kissing. Her lids drifted shut, and she ran her hands down my back in a lover's caress. I, in turn, skimmed my fingers down her bare arm, leaving goosebumps in my wake. I didn't let that fool me into thinking it meant anything.
It was an involuntary human reaction. Nothing more.
"What's going on?" Sam asked from behind us.
"Huh?" Marie looked over my shoulder as if she hadn't known he was there. "Oh, hey, Sam."
I nuzzled my face in her neck, breathing in her scent. Fuck, she smelled good, and it took all my control not to nibble on her sweet skin. It wasn't my skin to nibble on.
"Why are you two…?"
I pulled away from her and faced the dumbass, slinging my arm over her shoulder. "Why do you think?"
"Is this for real?" He glanced at me, then Marie. "You told me that your friends were always trying to hook you guys up, but you weren't interested in him."
Ouch. Not like I didn't fucking know it, but still.
Marie rested a hand on my heart and pressed her sweet body to my side. "Denial was all it was. Once we gave each other a chance, we realized just how right they were."
"How right we were," I said, caressing her chin.
She smiled up at me as if I was the only man alive.
Something in my chest ached. Emptied out. Hurt.
"Assholes," Sam said, storming off.
Marie's shoulders sagged as soon as he walked away, and she stepped out of my arms. "That went better than planned. Thank you for that."
I smoothed my jacket because my hands were trembling with the need to yank her back into my arms and kiss her for real this time…which I couldn't do. After our discussion earlier where I'd all but asked her if she wanted me to ask her out again and she stayed silent, I'd done nothing but kick myself in the ass for even thinking she might want that, even for a second.
Girls like Marie didn't go for guys like me.
Finn and Carrie were the exception, not the rule.
She had money, success, and a family who supported her. She didn't need an orphan messing around in her life, and we were both all too aware of that fact.
I chugged back the rest of my drink.
She nibbled on her lower lip for a second, then finished her champagne, too. "Want more?"
"Abso-fucking-lutely."
She laughed, and I couldn't look away. Everything about her sucked me in and didn't let go. Her smile, her teeth, her hair, the way her eyes lit up when she was amused, and the flushed pink cheeks she still sported from my embrace…who the hell was I kidding? I was mesmerized by her. Everything about her: her smile, her laugh, her heart, her kindness, her brain. If it involved her, you named it, I liked it. The only thing I didn't like about her?
The fact that she wasn't mine.
10
Marie
I couldn't. Shouldn't. Wouldn't.
There was no world where asking Joseph Hernandez to kiss me was a good idea. Except…the fact that it might be the best idea I've ever had. This new me, the one who wanted to make good choices, thought that he might be worth taking a risk on. If I never kissed him, in the back of my mind, I would always be asking myself…
What if?
What if he was the one? What if he could make me as happy as Finn and Carrie thought? What if he was my soulmate, and I'd never be truly happy because I was too afraid to take a risk and kiss him. If I didn't kiss him, then I would never find that out. What if…what if I did ask him, and he hurt me?
No, the new me wasn't scared of a little pain.
He opened the door to our room, holding it for me. The dinner had been a success, Pierre had approached us not once but twice, seeming to view us as comrades that were safe. We spoke of nothing and everything: the weather, his hatred of flying, Joseph's love of the ocean at six in the morning. I never knew that about him, or that he sometimes sat on the beach and waited to see the sunset until it was swallowed up whole by the ocean.
He said he liked how the water absorbed the colors of the sky and the sunset until all that was left was black, and I couldn't get my mind off that sentence.
Would he absorb me until all that was left was black?
He flipped the light on after shutting the door, tugging at his tie as he grinned. "That went well. With all luck, I'll have his computer taken care of during the morning seminar, and he'll be in jail by Sunday afternoon's closing lunch."
"If he's guilty."
He shrugged. "Right."
"I don't know." I played with the design on my small purse. "He doesn't seem like a criminal to me. He seems too…just too."
"Criminals aren't a certain type. Guys like Rasco could smile while sticking his hand in someone's purse and no one would know." He stopped tugging at his tie, leaving it hanging loose as he undid the top button of his shirt. "Even killers are often described as shy or quiet. Kind, even. Like you."
"So you're basically saying I'm secretly a killer?" I teased, a little thrown off by his describing me as shy, mainly because I did my best to hide that unwelcome character trait from the world.
He shrugged. "I suppose it's a possibility."
"If you survive the weekend, then you'll know I'm not," I said, hovering awkwardly close to him because I still wanted him to kiss me, but hadn't gotten the nerve to actually ask him to.
"Or you were just having an off week."
I laughed, tugging on my hair.
Joseph's eyes followed the motion, and he frowned slightly.
"Do you really like the ocean at dawn?" I asked.
"Yes," he said, his tone colored by surprise. At what? My question? My interest? The fact that I was playing with my hair, which was the most obvious sign that a girl was thinking about kissing a guy, and surely he knew it? "And
sunsets, too."
"I like watching sunsets," I told him as I dropped my hair and moved closer, my heart pounding and my legs shaking with nerves. "Maybe we can watch one together sometime."
His gaze dipped to my mouth, down my body, and then shot back up to my eyes. He swallowed hard and stepped back slightly, his cheeks coloring. "Yeah. I'd like that."
Seeing his nervous reaction to my closeness gave me a braveness I'd never felt.
Maybe it was because I'd made the infallible Joseph Hernandez nervous, or perhaps it was because if he was nervous, then there was a possibility that he felt the same way about me that I did about him. I couldn't describe exactly what that was if I was being honest. It was a little bit of a lot of emotions combined—fear, excitement, uncertainty, attraction, fear…
Oh, wait, I'd said that one already.
"What's the first thing you thought when you saw me all those years ago?" I asked.
"Damn."
"What?" I hesitated. "If you don't remember, then—"
"Oh, I remember, all right." His brow quirked up. "And, like I said, damn."
It dawned on me that this was his answer. "That's your first memory of me? Damn?"
"Yeah, because I didn't know you yet. You were just a pretty girl in a dress that I couldn't take my eyes off of." He twisted his lips, shifting his feet slightly. "But then we spoke, and there was something about you that told me that you were going to go amazing places, and I was going to remember you for the rest of my life."
I laughed nervously. "Guess you were right about one of those things. You can't exactly forget someone you see all the time."
"I was right about both things." He hesitated, then touched my hair where I'd been tugging it earlier. "You've done some pretty amazing things in life. How long till you're Vice President of that boring company of yours? You're fucking unforgettable for a million and one reasons, Marie, and don't you ever forget it."
Well, he'd gone and done it.
Settled the matter for me.
"Know what I thought about you?" I asked, my vision blurring slightly as my heart sped up.
He shook his head.
"I thought you were the hottest guy I had ever seen, and then when we spoke, I thought that you were easily the most dangerous because you made my heart pick up speed every time you walked in the room."
He swallowed. "Is that so?"
"Yes."
"It's a good thing that stopped quickly, or you'd be dead by now because I've been walking into the same room as you for over ten years now," he said playfully.
It was obvious he was confused about what was happening, and how to respond. His eyes kept shifting to the left as if seeking an escape route if necessary, which would have made me think he wasn't interested in me. But he also kept shifting slightly closer, and his gaze kept slamming back into me with the force of a 9.9 magnitude earthquake shaking all of California.
And just as deadly.
"Who says it stopped?" I reached out slowly, taking my time so he could move away if he wanted to. He didn't. I grabbed his hand and rested it on my heart. "See?"
He swallowed hard, the edge of his palm on the curve of my upper breast.
I closed my fist around his tie and tugged slightly. His other hand fell to my waist, touching me lightly. It was so light, just a grazing of his fingertips against the fabric of my dress, and if it had been any other man but him, I never would have even noticed. But with Joseph, it was a fire burning a hole through the material.
"Marie," he said, his voice deeper than ever before.
"Why do you think I always kept so far away from you?" I asked breathlessly, even though I'd done nothing to lose my breath…yet. "Self-preservation was my strongest inclination."
"Well…" His lips twitched. "Fair warning, you're pretty damn close right now."
I swallowed hard. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Anything," he said, his hand still on my waist.
"What would you say if I asked you to kiss me?"
His nostrils flared, and he did it again.
That wildfire gaze of his that dipped down to my lips and left a trail of fire in its wake, burning me alive with nothing more than his eyes. "I wouldn't say anything at all."
I tightened my grip on his loosened tie. "Why not?"
He stepped closer.
His cologne and shampoo teased me. Taunted me. He had the slight scent of champagne on his breath, too, but not much. We'd only had three glasses over the course of the evening since he'd been "on-duty." I had been, too, since I didn't want to slip up and say the wrong thing, ruining his chances at getting in Pierre's room cleanly—and more importantly…out of it.
"Last time I checked, kissing required other things from the mouth besides words." He pushed my hair off my cheek with the backs of his knuckles. His skin on mine sent a shiver down my spine and beyond, despite the relative innocence of the gesture. "Unless I've been doing it wrong all these years…?"
"Maybe we should find out."
"Careful what you ask for…" he moved closer, his toes touching mine.
"I'm done being careful. I've been careful my whole life. Never taking a chance, never risking feeling something real." I swallowed, my beating heart drowning out the sound of my mind screaming for me to stop before it was too late. "So if you're interested in me, or simply curious enough to find out if we might have something between us that could be kind of fun, then I'd like it very much if you would kiss me now."
His lids slowly lifted, and when he locked gazes with me, it was like the brown depths of his eyes were molten chocolate, pulling me into him until there was nothing left. He pressed the pad of his thumb to my lower lip, staring at it in awe. "I've been waiting for you to say that for over a decade."
My heart wrenched, my stomach twisted, my legs wobbled, my breath stuck in my throat—and he hadn't even kissed me yet. "I thought you weren't going to say anyth—"
His mouth touched mine, fireworks shooting off in every direction.
I'd like to say I was exaggerating about that, or being poetic, but behind my closed lids I saw them, and they were glorious. Red, blue, green, gold. They all burst, pulling my nerves tighter until I was sure something would snap, pulling me under his spell until I was sure I'd never entirely be out of it again. The second he pressed his harder lips to my softer ones, it was as if the world shifted, and turned, and all I could think was Oh my God, they were right.
They'd all been so frigging right.
11
Hernandez
Kissing Marie was like poking a sleeping bear and then being surprised when it bit your hand off. If you poked the bear without a strategic plan, you were gonna get hurt, and I wasn't in the business of willingly getting hurt. But she'd gone and looked at me as if I was the last man on earth, and I'd been sucked into those pretty eyes of hers, and there had been no stopping it.
This kiss was a volcanic force of nature that had been lurking under the placid surface, waiting for the right time to erupt. Well, watch out, motherfuckers.
It was time for an eruption.
Growling, I spun her and pressed her against the wall, my hands tracing the curves of her body as I slipped my tongue inside her parted lips, tasting heaven for the first time in my life. Every dip, every valley, was painstakingly carved out by God himself, and I couldn't help but want to bow at her feet. There was no going back now. Only forward.
She skimmed her hands down my back, feeling my planes and edges, too, but she would be sadly disappointed to discover that I was only a man, nothing worth worshipping at all.
When she fisted the fabric of my jacket, hanging on tight, I forced myself to end the kiss, taking a deep, shuddering breath as I tried to regain control of myself.
She lifted her chin, blinking rapidly. "Why'd you stop?"
"You only asked for a kiss." I ran my thumb over her lower lip, staring down into the deep blue of her eyes, getting lost. "I'll never try to get more out of you than you're willing to g
ive. That's the only promise I can make you right now."
She swallowed hard, letting her eyes drift shut. "I promise the same thing."
"Then we're on the same page," I said slowly.
She nodded. "Absolutely. This is spontaneous, fun, and it means nothing besides the fact that we're both curious enough about one another to give it a try."
She made it sound like I was saying this meant nothing to me, and that wasn't it. In fact, it was the complete opposite. This wasn't just curiosity on my part, and that was the problem. I'd been waiting for this moment for what felt like my whole damn life.
"Actually, I'm making one more promise," she said, pulling me out of my head.
Thank God.
"What's that?" I asked, my voice thick.
"Afterwards, no matter what happens, we remain friends. There will be no hard feelings and no resentment. Our group will remain unchanged, intact, and safe."
I nodded. "Of course. But—"
"Now, so I'm perfectly clear, and you no longer feel the need to stop…" She flicked her tongue out to wet her lips and lowered her hands until they cupped my ass, tugging me closer. "Don't stop touching me until we know what every inch of one another feels like."
Slowly, reverently, I lowered my mouth to hers and visited heaven for the second time. She tasted like champagne and Marie, a flavor I would never be able to describe no matter how many verses of poetry I used. Her body fit to mine in all the right places, and her soft lips took me out of my mind and into a place much more magical. This time, my hands veered away from the outer curves I'd already discovered. I skimmed my fingers over her shoulder, traced her collarbone, dipped over the swell of breast popping out of the dress she wore, and then scraped my nail over her nipple. Even through the fabric of her clothing, I could feel the hard bud begging to be set free so I could taste her properly. I closed my palm over her, feeling the weight of her breast in my hands. She moaned and arched her back in invitation.
I had no intention of ignoring it.
Rocking my hips against her, I squeezed her nipples through the fabric just hard enough to feel good. Or at least, I hoped it had. To be honest, getting the chance to be with Marie was nerve-wracking as hell. Where I was usually confident and assured, I was scared that I was going to come on too strong, and scare her off like I had all those years ago. I'd made that mistake once, I couldn't allow myself to make it twice.
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