Page 147 of The Reason I Married Him
“What are you not saying?”
“It’s stupid.” She shakes her head.
“Nothing is stupid. Just tell me.”
“I shouldn’t even be asking,” she says.
“Aubree.” I force her to look me in the eyes. “Ask.”
She heaves a heavy sigh and then says, “Did you mean it?” Her eyes look impossibly large as she stares up at me. “It’s okay if you didn’t mean it, but I was just wondering?—”
“Did I mean what?” I ask.
She wets her lips and then softly says, “Did you mean the words you said to Amanda, or was that . . . was that something your author brain was able to come up with on the spot?”
Fuck. This woman has no clue how incredible she is. She underestimates her heart, her looks, her strength.Fuck, I hate how hurt she’s been.
I bring our connected hands to my lips and press a gentle kiss on her knuckles. “I meant every word of it,” I say. “There are things I can lie about when it comes to this relationship like how we met and this fake love I have for you, but there are things I can’t lie about. And that’s who you are as a person. Your very core, your morals, your values, those are all true. That’s not something I can make?—”
I don’t finish what I’m saying because her hand loops around my neck, and she pulls me down to her mouth, where she kisses me and kisses me hard.
Shocked for a second, I still, but the moment her tongue parts my lips with hers, I follow suit and place one hand on her hip as I press her up against my SUV, my mouth exploring hers just as much as she’s exploring mine.
Fuck, these lips. They’re unlike anything I’ve ever kissed before. Full and soft but tentative and timid at the same time. They’re eager, yet they don’t fully go all in. They wait for me to take charge, and I really fucking love being in charge.
I bring my hand to the side of her head, pressing up against the SUV, and push my pelvis against hers as I angle my head to the side, giving us both better access as her tongue wanders into my mouth.
So sweet.
So delicious.
She has such a hard outer shell, but on the inside, she’s warm and?—
“Get a room!” someone shouts a few feet away, startling us both.
I pull away as Aubree’s hand goes to her mouth. She looks just as stunned as I feel.
“Oh my God, I’m sorry,” she says quickly. “I don’t . . . I don’t know what came over me.”
Seeing that she’s visibly stressed and unsure of herself and her actions, I decide to lighten the mood. I don’t need her overthinking this because if she starts overthinking it, then I’ll do the same, and that’s the last thing I need.
So I say, “I think you were terrified about closing out the good-night kiss, so you felt like you had to get one more in.”
Her expression falls flat and that irritated look I’ve become so fond of reappears. “Thank you for that.”
“Thank you for what?” I ask.
“Reminding me why I find you so unbearable.”
I open her car door and gesture for her to get in. “Anything for my lady.”
She shuts the door on me and buckles herself up.
If I wasn’t so stunned by that kiss right now, I might even laugh at her reaction. But hell. That was . . . that was not something I was expecting.
I’ve kissed her before, and I’ve liked it. I’ve liked every second of it.
But that kiss. I felt it all the way down to my toes.
