Page 15 of Bargain Match

Or how sweet her mouth tastes, with a mixture of wine, the apple tart we had for dessert, and an essence that is all her.

I can’t help lifting a hand to cup her cheek, as I ease her lips open to get an even better taste.

She gasps lightly but doesn’t put up a resistance. And even though this is all for show—all to shut up the mob that has turned from chanting to cheering—I sink deeper and deeper into the kiss.

It’s like the first time I went white water rafting. Thrilling and terrifying and exhilarating. The ride of a lifetime. And with every twist and turn, the feeling that I’m absolutely one with nature.

Does she feel it too? This sense of rightness? This feeling of oneness with each other?

I hope she does because I never want it to end.

One of the villagers cuffs me on the shoulder. “Careful there, lad. Save something for the bedroom.”

I pull back and open my eyes to meet Hadley’s gaze. I search it and find her eyes every bit as hazy, every bit as glassy as mine.

“Now, ye need to carry yer lass over the threshold.”

I blink. “What?”

“It’s a tradition. The groom carries his bride over the threshold and then the wedding night can really happen.”

Hadley flushes and eyes me nervously. “Oh, we’re not?—”

“It’s okay.” It’s more than okay. “Rules are rules. And they say I have to carry you over the threshold.”

“Really, you don’t have to?—”

“I insist.”

I don’t know what’s come over me. Maybe it’s the high I’m still riding from the kiss. Maybe it’s the lack of sleep on the flight over. Maybe it’s the extra bottle of wine Glynis served us with dessert.

But right now, I feel an overwhelming need to prove my masculinity—and maybe even my virility—to show my best friend that I could be so much more than that.

An hour later, lying on the bed, on a wet spot leftover from where the local villagers blessed it—another local custom—I stare at the top of the canopy bed. With an ice pack resting against my junk.

“I guess that’s one way to take care of that,” I grumble.

“What?” Hadley asks.

I shake my head.

Grimaging at the pain still radiating from where she accidentally kicked me when I attempted to carry her over the threshold, while she continued to protest, I turn on my side,giving my back to Hadley. Short of building a pillow barricade between us, which seems more than a little dramatic, it’s the best idea I can muster to keep my hands off of her.

A task that’s monumentally harder now that I’ve had a taste of her lips.

But that kiss was only for show. At least as far as Hadley was concerned. The next time I touch her, I want it to be because she wants it.

I want her to want me as much as I want her.

Rubbing my lips together, I recall her taste. My cock twitches. The ache is back.

I wince.

Hadley leans up over me. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean?—”

“I know,” I interrupt. My tone is too harsh. If she only knew the torture she was putting me through by being so close.

The last thing I need is a boner right now. And not just because I don’t want her to see it.

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