Page 95 of Reckless
And if the cars hadn’t been thirty feet away, if the family hadn’t been close to become an immediate problem, I would have kissed her right there on the boardwalk.
She’s drank too much and I had too.I leaned down enough that my next words only went to her ears.
“And you need to know,” I said.“I’m not finished being possessive yet.”
Her whole body reacted.
And then Britney turned and called, “Are you two coming or should we leave you for the gulls?”
Kelly stepped back first this time.
Instead I watched her move toward the others with my entire body still lit up from the last thirty seconds and thought, I was done pretending.
Eleven
The Kiss
Kelly
My heart and head pounded.By the time we got back to the compound, my body was behaving like I’d made several bad decisions already and was actively considering worse ones.
I got out of the car.
I laughed when Charlie said something obscene about gulls and unresolved tension.I let Hope hook her arm through mine on the walk up the stone path.
But I kept remembering what Xerses had said to me on the marina boards.His voice was so clear in my mind as he said because I’m not finished being jealous yet.
I was turned on enough to need divine intervention and maybe a blood transfusion.
I should have gone straight upstairs but I glanced behind me.
Xerses was inside the door behind us, one hand on the frame while the others moved past him.
His eyes were on me, possessive, and volatile.
My pulse kicked so hard I almost stumbled.
I wasn’t drunk, not even close.
We moved deeper into the house in little clusters without a word to each other.
Charlie dragged Hope toward the game room because the man could not see a table without wanting to compete on it.Avril and Kir peeled off toward one of the side terraces with the quiet intimacy of people who no longer needed witnesses.Jeff and Miley disappeared into an argument that looked suspiciously like foreplay if a person hated herself enough to examine it too long.
Roxanne kissed my cheek in passing and told me there were pastries in the kitchen if I got hungry later.Then she was gone in a cloud of silk and satisfaction.
And Xerses, he beaconed me.I shook my head and left.I was not doing this in the foyer.I started toward the stairs.
This is not happening,” I whispered under my breath.“You are not losing sleep because a man said the word jealous in public.”
The ceiling did not care.
“You are a grown woman,” I continued to myself.“And you have very sensible opinions about boundaries.”
The ceiling remained unmoved.
Moonlight outside the door turned it into a temptation.
I stood up before I could think better of it, slid on my sandals, and slipped out of the guest room with my tea still in my hand.
