Page 72 of Love and Other Champagne Problems

Was this change because of Aaron’s sudden appearance?

By some chance, was itnotjust me who felt this way?

With his eyes closed, Sumner didn’t see me take a step toward him. “I liked dancing with you more.”

He let out a slow breath. “Margot.”

I took another step. “I like the way you smell more.”

“Margot.”

“I like your hands more.”

Sumner’s eyes popped open, and he found me standing before him. He didn’t react at first, nothing beyond repeating my name in quiet desperation. “Margot.”

Much like I’d grappled to hang onto my anger to not entertain the sort of helpless feeling, Sumner saying my name sounded like he, too, was wrestling with an emotion. A warning, whether to me or himself.

“I need to know.” I scanned his face as if the answer would be there. My eyes traced the freckles underneath his right eye, the curve of his cheek, down to the rosy bowof his upper lip. “I thought I didn’t need to—I’vethoughtit for a while—but in there, I realized… I can’tnotknow.”

With Sumner, I’d never been nervous. Even from the beginning. It was almost as if Sumner was a long-lost friend, and we fell into a routine. In the weeks we’d spent nearly every day together, his presence had become somewhat of a haven to me, a vacation house, a place I could go when I wanted to feel like myself. I’d smiled more in the past few weeks than I had in years. He proved to me, time and time again, that there was no reason to worry about how I seemed or how I acted around him.There’s nothing wrong with you. That sort of acceptance was new for me, and it’d undone all the hard strides I’d made over the years of hardening my heart. I couldn’t tell if it meant more.

I needed to know.

A pained sort of wariness filled Sumner’s eyes and stormed the blue further. “Knowwhat?”

Without an ounce of warning or hesitation, I reached up and laid my hands on either side of Sumner’s neck, using the touch to draw his mouth to mine.

Since it’d happened, I’d thought about my first kiss with Sumner plenty, though my mind could never truly provide a satisfying memory of it. I’d been too preoccupied, too busy gloating over the shock of it all, to really put it to memory. I made sure not to make the same mistake now.

My lips took Sumner’s without hesitation, and the second they connected, something burst through me. I’d thought my skin was warm, but Sumner’s throat was blazing with heat, warming my fingers as I heldhim to me. I felt girlish for the first time in my life as I rose to my tiptoes, kissing him in the increasingly stuffy air of the closet. With my eyes closed, I relished in the moment.

Sumner’s hands reached up and grasped my wrists, but hesitated there, not pulling me closer nor pushing me away. His lips were soft against mine, yielding, and through the blood pounding in my head and in my heart, I finally realized—Sumner was not kissing me back.

I jerked my head away, an almost painful pins-and-needles feeling crawling along the back of my neck. I waited for a moment, as if expecting him to chase the distance I created and initiate the kiss himself this time, but he didn’t. Instead, Sumner just swallowed hard and continued to hold my wrists, not quite looking at me. “You—you don’t like me, Margot,” he whispered, breathless. “I don’t belong in your world.”

“I like that you don’t belong in my world.” My voice was softer than I meant for it to be. “I don’t belong in it either.”

“But you—youdo.” Sumner pinched his eyes shut as he took a step back from me, releasing my hands. He shook his head a little, as if attempting to clear it. “You’reengaged—or about to be. Aaron—he’s going to propose.”

“What if I didn’t accept?”

“Margot, what—” He cut himself off to run a hand across his features, at a total loss. “What are you talking about? You said yourself that refusing Aaron meant your parents would throw you out. I don’t—I don’t understand you right now.” When he lowered his hands, he looked so stressed, regarding me. “Was it that bad? In there, with Aaron? Did he say something? Do something?”

“No,” I answered immediately. “I could settle for Aaron Astor. It would be easy. Settling for him would mean my parents’ approval, the approval from everyone in the club; it would mean an easy rest of my life. I’d never have to give up my Malstoni or my Gilfman or my wine. I’d be comfortable… but you wouldn’t be there.”

I might not have fought for my choices before, never considered my happiness before. I’d sat back, allowed the world to make the decisions for me, and complained about them each time. Sumner was right; I couldn’t be a martyr about my life when I allowed others to direct it for me. I’d take decisions into my own hands now, and wait for whatever consequences that came with it. I wouldn’t roll over anymore. If I got bit, so be it.

“You said so yourself,” I murmured, “that choosing happiness is better.”

“Your parents,” Sumner began, picking another angle. “The reason they chose me to watch you was to keep this from happening. They?—”

“This isn’t about my parents.” I could deal with Sumner not liking me romantically, but I couldn’t take it if this was yet another thing that my parents could ruin. Their claws sunk deep into every single aspect of my life, it seemed.

“Itis, though,” he said in a small, exasperated, a crease deep between his eyebrows. “They hired me to keep you out of trouble. Theytrustedme. I can’t just—Ican’t. I may not belong in your world, but Aaron does. He’s a better fit for you.”

“I don’t want Aaron,” I said simply. “I want you.”

The words stunned him for a moment, and in thatmoment, the warmth that crossed over his eyes came in a fleeting flash. If I hadn’t been watching, I would’ve missed it entirely. I’d think about that warmth later and convince myself that I’d imagined it, misinterpreted it, but for that brief moment, I thought he was about to say what I wanted to hear.

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