Page 141 of Nothing Like the Movies

“Well, then,” he said, setting my feet on the ground and somehow managing to spin me so I was facing him, without letting me out of his arms. “Guess I’m going to have to teach you a lesson.”

“Oh, big man,” I said, my breath coming fast, but now it was because of the heat in his dark eyes as he looked at me. “Please teach m—”

His mouth cut me off.

One minute I was speaking, the next his lips were on mine, his tongue in my mouth, my whimper in his.Dear God, I thought as his arms pulled me closer, where I was pressed against every inch of him and my eyes closed automatically,it feels good to be back in his arms.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

“There I was, standing there in the church, and for the first time in my whole life I realized I totally and utterly loved one person. And it wasn’t the person next to me in the veil. It’s the person standing opposite me now… in the rain.”

—Four Weddings and a Funeral

Wes

The minute my lips landed on hers, the teasing torture was left behind, and all that remained was want. I kissed her mouth the only way I knew how—obsessed, crazed, needy—and she returned the favor, delivering hot suction that drove me wild.

I squeezed her waist, not caring about anything but the way she kissed me back like she didn’t want to ever stop. I could feel every inch of her body against me, and when her fingers slipped under the back of my T-shirt, I growled like an animal.

She made me feral for her.

I dropped the ball and pulled her tighter against me, my body pressing into hers from memory, like a key into the only lock that would ever fit. I cursed into her mouth when I felt her legs wrap around me, my knees literally weak from the intensity of my want.

I put my hands underneath her and started walking, away fromhome plate and toward the dugout, and the way she tightened her long, bare legs around me set me on fire. It got quieter as we entered the dugout, and I didn’t stop walking until her back was against the wall in the darkness. Until I was pinning her body against it as we kissed like we were about to die and this was our last moment together.

I had missed her for what felt like my entire life.

And she was in my arms, kissing me.

Like she’d missedmefor her entire life.

It gutted me, to be honest. Finally having her in my arms, meeting me kiss-for-kiss after we’d spent the past few hours together, felt terrifyingly perfect.

Like each and every wish I’d made upon a lifetime of stars was coming true, all at once.

This wasmyLiz, finally back in my arms.

“God, I love you,” I said against her mouth, every part of me lost in what was finally found. I leaned into her, breathing in her perfume as her fingers gripped my shoulders. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“Wes,” she breathed, her eyes still closed as she whispered into me. “Don’t.”

“What?” I lifted my mouth, breathing heavy, looking down into sleepy green eyes that fluttered open like butterfly wings.

She gave her head a shake. “Don’t say that.”

“Don’t say what?” I lowered my head and rubbed my nose against sweet freckles, flexing my fingers against the softness in my palms.

“That you love me,” she said, blinking at me with a wrinkle between her eyebrows.

“Why not?”

“Because you can’t,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s too soon.”

“Too soon?” I wanted to laugh at that, because how in the hell could it be too soon? “Did you seriously just say that?”

“It’s, like, our first date.” She dropped her hands from my shoulders and rubbed her lips together, finding her feet and stepping back from me. “You can’t love me already.”

I felt the distance between us grow, inches that felt like miles, as my hands became empty. I watched her retreat as I said, “Well, I do.”

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