Page 50 of Love Is…?

Tessa jerked backwards, dropping onto the stool. “Oh! I’m…That was ridiculous, wasn’t it?”

“No!” Jayde breathed, her eyes round. “That was…Wow! Fuck me!”

Tessa gathered her last handful of flirting confidence. “I’m not sure that’s in the curriculum.” She smirked, and Jaydestared, then laughed loudly, leaning on her hand, elbow propped on the counter.

“You’re a revelation. That was so good. If a woman doesn’t get turned on when you do that, then they’re dead.”

Tessa darted her eyes to the kitchen, then back, because, while the praise was heartwarming, right then she wanted to know exactly how much she’d turned Jayde on, because clearly Jayde wasn’t dead.

“What’s next in this practical?” she managed.

Jayde bunched her lips and flicked them sideways. “Well, you’ve got a handle on the flirting bit, so we’re up to kissing.”

Tessa’s lungs packed up their office desks and left the building because suddenly air was a rare commodity.

“But what about banter?” she stammered.

“I think we’ve established that you’ve got that covered.”

Tessa stalled. “I know how to kiss a woman, Jayde.”

Jayde leaned into Tessa’s space. “I’m sure you do, but do you know how to kiss a woman that you want to pick up?”

“There’s a difference?” Tessa’s skin tingled at Jayde’s proximity.

“Absolutely,” Jayde murmured, her eyes half-lidded. “This version of a kiss leaps over tentative and lands on the take-me-home-and-do-delicious-things-to-me. That’s what a pick-up kiss is like.”

Tessa’s mind was rioting, frantically adding to the list of sexy things as if taking shorthand in a lecture.

“It is?”

Jayde’s breath brushed against her cheek. “Oh, yes. You want your kiss to say how beautiful that woman is, how hot she is, how badly you want to fuck her, how urgent your need is.”

Tessa’s eyes went round. “But that’s how you kiss when you’re in love as well.”

Jayde gave a tiny hum. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve only ever hooked up. You’ve only ever been in love. Are the kisses the same?”

Jayde was so close. Close enough to discover that answer, which was why Tessa’s common sense departed on a flight to Fiji.

“We could find out,” she breathed, and Tessa could have sworn that Jayde had been waiting for that sentence.

“Okay,” Jayde whispered.

Without breaking eye contact, Tessa stood and stepped in between Jayde’s legs, then emboldened by the courage coursing through her veins, she placed her hands on Jayde’s thighs, leaned in slowly, and ever so softly pressed her lips to Jayde’s.

Lightning bolts. Goosebumps. The sweetest kiss she’d shared in a very long time. So incredibly romantic.

Tessa pulled away, and looked at Jayde’s face, trying to gauge if the kiss had met the brief. Of course it hadn’t, because romance wasnotwhat was required here.Tessa rolled her eyes. “I didn’t deliver the right message, did I?”

Jayde’s lips slowly parted, just a tiny amount, and her eyes, dark with interest, fixed on Tessa’s face.

“I certainly received a message,” she said, quietly.

They were frozen, Tessa’s hands on Jayde’s thighs, bodies leaning in, eyes unable to look away. “It wasn’t the right sort, though,” Tessa said. “I’m at a bar, remember. I’ve just made you swallow your tongue with my sexy banter.”

Jayde smiled.

“So…” Tessa said contemplatively. “How about I have another go at sending the right message?” Tessa’s brain threw its hands in the air, and announced that it was off to join common sense in Fiji.

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