Page 43 of Worth the Risk

The bar takes notice as people part to make room for me without asking.

With each step closer, his smirk grows smugger.

Bastard.

When I reach him, he unloops his arm from around the woman’s neck and takes a step toward me. The cocksure look on his face slowly falls.

Without a word, I step into him and grab the back of his neck, pulling his face down toward mine.

And then I kiss him.

A no-holds-barred, greedy, take-what-I-want kind of kiss that both dizzies me and lights every part of me with the desire he stoked moments ago.

He’s stunned at first. At least, I think he is, because I’m so busy giving him the revenge kiss to rival all revenge kisses that I don’t even pay attention.

Then his lips are moving.

His tongue is reacting.

His body goes from tense to pliant.

When the outside world seeps through my anger, when the hoots and the hollers break through my thoughts and yank my attention from the devastation of his kiss, I jolt back a step.

A thousand comments race through my mind as I stare at him.

I didn’t manipulate you.

I want you, too.

You don’t get to walk away without a fight.

I say none of them. I stand there with my chest heaving and the crowd staring and begin to feel like a complete idiot.

“Gotta admire a woman who’ll go to extremes to get what she wants.” His voice is a quiet rumble against the noise of the bar, and yet, I hear every single word.

“That kiss had nothing to do with the contest.”

“What did it have to do with, then?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t have a choice. You always have a choice,” I finally say through gritted teeth as heat flushes my cheeks. “And don’t ever do that to me again.”

He takes a step forward. My breath hitches. My eyes close. My body anticipates his touch.

“Then don’t choose me,” he murmurs, but his words hold so much weight that I swear he’s talking about more than the damn contest.

I open my mouth to speak and then close it. The people around us are watching, and I don’t want to fuel the rumor mill that I just unthinkingly kicked into high gear. So, without another word, I turn on my heel and walk out of Hooligan’s.

Last night is a haze.

A goddamn haze in which I’m pretty sure I kissed Sidney. Then she kissed me back. And somewhere along the line, I agreed to be a willing participant in her whole contest.

“Then don’t choose me.”

“Christ.” I run a hand through my hair and sigh.

“You really shouldn’t say that.” I startle at his voice but shouldn’t expect any less. Luke and his habit of standing at the side of the bed and staring until I wake up. “You told me I wasn’t allowed to say that word, so I don’t think it’s fair if you do.”

I prop myself up on one elbow and look his way as I scrub a hand through my hair.