Page 28 of Oyster

“One day I will, you know,” she promised. Her usually restless gaze took on the same calm determination as when she stepped up to fire off a penalty. “One day, Étienne Salvador will cease to exist, and Éti will take his place. And écoute, Nico. She’ll do whatever she damn well pleases.”

I didn’t doubt it.

On the way back, the speed demon wedged behind me on my Kawasaki gripped my waist even tighter. Thank God she’d devoured both our puddings, because the way she squeezed my middle, I’d have felt like a snake that swallowed a football by the time we dismounted. Avoiding the garlicky razor clams had been a wise decision, too. In case I hadn’t made up my mind earlier, then her warm body pressed against mine did the rest. There was something I badly needed to do after I cut the engine and peeled away my helmet. I stayed straddling my bike, needing to get home. Max and my dad were working, and my dad had asked me to check on my mum before I joined them.

She started rabbiting away almost before she got her own damned helmet off.

“Ça alors, Nico! Did you see that guy in the red Honda? He was all over the place! And this helmet! Why are the insides of them made to be so itchy? And look what it’s done to my hair! Why does my hair insist on growing out instead of down? I look like the Lion King!”

She glared at the pink helmet as if it had set out with the express purpose of annoying her, before grinning up at me, cheeks flushed from being squashed inside the stuffy headgear now dangling from her wrist. Spirals of hair stuck up all over the show, like she’d jammed her fingers in a plug socket. Ridiculously cute, cuter than any woman had a right to be.

I crooked a finger at her. “Come over here, you.”

She mock saluted as she stood to attention beside me. “Yessir.”

“Open wide and show me your tongue,” I ordered.

“Why?”

I made my voice stern. “Just do what you’re told.”

Reaching closer, I damped down her hair at the same time as she crossed her eyes at me, and the tip of her wet tongue appeared through parted pink lips.

“Why am I doing this?” she asked, in a muffled voice. Only Éti could talkandstick out her tongue.

“I’m just double checking you’re not hiding a tongue bar somewhere. Because I’m going todothis.”

The tip of my tongue grazed the seam of her lips as I pressed my mouth to hers. Only for a short second, but the imprint of that kiss would last forever. In that brief sliver of time, I’d captured joy and sunshine, and everything good in between.

The pink helmet thudded to the ground.

“What the hell was that for?”

“It was the only way I could think of shutting you up.”

“Waouh.”

Almost bewildered, she rubbed with her fingertips at her thoroughly kissable mouth, then gave a funny, choked laugh. “Grab my face and shut me up again. But for longer this time.”

I didn’t grab her face so much as cradle it between my palms. Twisting her fingers in my sleeves, she leaned into me, tipping her face down to mine. My eyes drifted closed as our lips met again.Mon dieu.If our first kiss was locked forever in time, then our entire future breathed down the neck of this one.

With a soul-hugging sigh of pleasure, Éti whispered, “Nico, I’ve never…”

“Never been kissed before?”

“No. Not really.” Her face held an odd expression, like she wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it.

“Would you like me to kiss you again?”

“Can… can I kiss you instead?”

I smiled, amused. Of course, Éti had to be in the driving seat.

Mimicking me, she cupped my face in her hands. Her grip was firm, more possessive than I was used to. In the gap before her soft mouth landed at the corner of mine, I sensed her studying me. She traced over my piercing with her tongue, wiggling it, blissfully unaware of the fire she was stoking below. When she finally pulled back, it was with a hungry, drawn-out sigh. “La vache, I like doing this. Does lunch and kissing mean I’m your girlfriend now?”

I spluttered a laugh. “Is that a vacancy you’re interested in filling, mademoiselle?”

“I could be persuaded.” Tipping her head to one side, she pretended to contemplate it. “Let me kiss you once more, to be sure.”

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