Page 24 of Kiss Me

I don’t even realize how natural it feels when he slides his arm along the length of my chair. All I can feel is the comforting warmth brought on by his body’s closeness.

Suddenly, I don’t even want the last remaining gingerbread cookie on my plate. What I crave is to get closer to him.

I shake my head, forcing the ridiculous thought from my mind. “What abuse?” I counter. “You practically bullied a twelve year old for some candy.”

“That was atyourbehest. And have you met that twelve year old? Those Townsend kids aren’t pushovers. Don’t let the cuteness fool you.”

A giggle spills from me at the way he mock shivers as if in fear.

“Right. It’s not like I haven’t met anyone new within the last twenty-four hours who’s willing to do some unscrupulous things to get what he wants.”

I level him with a glare.

His eyebrows raise, affronted. “Muah?” He clicks his tongue and shakes his head. “I’m offended.”

“I’m not buying it.” Then I narrow my eyes and lean in so only he can hear me. “Besides, you haven’t even told me what it is you really want,” I finally say.

He tilts his head to the side.

I wave my hand between the two of us. “This. You’ve yet to reveal exactly what it is you want from me. It’s not money. That we’ve established.”

All Taehyun has told me is that he wanted me to come with him to tonight’s outing. And any other events he requests my attendance at. I’ve yet to figure out his angle.

He doesn’t answer for a long while. So long that I get lost staring into his dark gaze. It’s not as dark as I previously thought, when I first met him out on the ski lift. His pupils are a mixture of copper-brown and black. Depending on his expression, the colors can change.

The longer I stare, the more beautiful they become.

“You still haven’t realized it yet?” he asks.

It takes me a beat to even remember what it is we were discussing.

“If I knew, I wouldn’t have to ask.”

I expect a witty or snappy comeback, but he just nods and tells me, “You’ll figure it out.”

“Well, what do we have here?” a woman questions behind us.

Taehyun and I both spin in our seats to find the four women judging this competition standing over us. All four admire our gingerbread house.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a gingerbread house with a two-car garage,” Patience Townsend, Kennedy and Kyles’ mother, says.

“Not only that,” I instantly reply, “we’ve made a tiny tree house in the backyard.”

The women sing our praises.

Kayla Townsend calls out to the others around the room for them to come and look.

I give Taehyun a triumphant look, silently telling him that I knew what I was doing. He nods and smirks at me as if to say he agrees.

“What are you talking about? I had a garage for my gingerbread house last year,” Aaron Townsend, of all people, says.

“Daddy, that was Kyle’s gingerbread house,” Stasi, his youngest daughter, counters.

The older Townsend cocks his head to the side and glowers at her. The look makes me recoil in fear even though he’s not looking at me. But Stasi merely laughs it off.

“All those times you woke me up in the middle of the night as a baby, I should’ve known then you would be the one to betray me.” He shakes his head and actually cracks a smile while hugging Stasi.

“That is, after your sister broke my heart first.”

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