Page 75 of Sweet Temptation

His breath caught in his throat, and he froze against me. I’d truly taken him by surprise, and his hesitation had me worried I’d made a terrible mistake. It only lasted a moment because suddenly he was pulling me closer. His arms wrapped around me, and his lips moved hungrily against mine.

We might have been standing on a New York sidewalk in the middle of the night, but I lost all sense of the outside world as Wes started kissing me like I was the very oxygen he needed to breathe.

He was the air for me too, and it felt like he was saving me just as much as I was saving him. For the first time in weeks, I felt something other than pain and uncertainty. I felt the blissful ecstasy of a mind clear from churning thoughts.

I was probably going to regret this come morning. But that didn’t matter right now. Wes was a really good kisser, and all I could wonder was why I hadn’t done this before. Kissing him was like taking a painkiller for a headache, and I was an idiot for enduring the constant dull ache inside of me when there was such a simple and easy fix.

When we finally broke apart, I was nervous to look at him. I wasn’t sure how he was going to react, but when I glanced up at him, I was relieved to find he was no longer staring back at me with the same hurt-filled eyes. Instead, he was looking at me in wonder, like he was seeing something amazing for the very first time.

“You kissed me.” He finally broke the silence.

“You kissed me back.”

He slowly smiled. “Yeah, I did.”

He seemed happy, but I wasn’t exactly sure what he was thinking. I was still clutching his shirt, and I dropped my hands to my sides. Wes didn’t let my hands get far before he caught them up in his own.

“I’m glad you kissed me.”

“You are?”

“I’ve been thinking about it all night,” he admitted. “I know I was upset about Sarah, but just so you know, I wanted to kiss you before you jumped on me.”

“I didn’t jump on you.” I blushed

“I didn’t say it was a bad thing. In fact, I think I needed it to snap out of my meltdown.”

“There were probably other ways.”

“Probably,” he smiled. “But none I would have liked as much as that. It worked like a charm. Your kisses are kind of magical...” His gaze dipped to my lips, and my heart leaped as I wondered if he was about to kiss me again. I didn’t get a chance to find out because his phone started ringing.

I deflated a little as he glanced away, but it was probably for the best. Wes’s lips had been kind of magical too, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to fall under his spell.

“Sawyer, this better be good,” Wes said as he answered the phone. He waited a beat as his brother responded before he spoke again. “Yeah, I saw her too. I’m outside the entrance to the club with Isobel. I don’t know if we’re going to go back in.”

I really hoped we weren’t. I didn’t think it would do Wes any good to see his ex again, and one night of club dancing was enough to last me a lifetime.

Wes hung up the phone and focused on me once more. “The others are going to come meet us outside. Sawyer said Anna’s had a few too many drinks and we should probably get her home anyway.”

“Yeah, it feels like time to call it a night,” I agreed.

Wes’s eyes flicked down to my lips, and my stomach clenched as I pictured kissing him one more time. The last thing I needed right now was for our friends to walk out and find us making out, so I took a step back to remove the temptation. It was the right decision because the others soon joined us.

“You okay, man?” Sawyer asked, clasping Wes on the arm as he came up behind us with Cress and Anna.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Wes said, still smirking at me.

Sawyer frowned in my direction and then looked back at his brother. “I thought you’d be a mess after seeing Sarah.”

Wes shrugged. “It was a shock when I first saw her, but I’m feeling better about it now.”

“Good, because you deserve so much better than her,” Anna said, shaking her head. She didn’t seem as drunk as Wes had suggested. “Have you guys been out here long?”

“Long enough that it’s starting to get cold,” I responded. It wasn’t that bad, but I was eager to leave. I didn’t want the others beginning to wonder why Wes was miraculously doing so well after seeing his ex kissing someone. And he kept looking at me with that amused look on his face, which wasn’t helping.

“I’ve ordered an Uber,” Cress said. “It should be here any minute.”

“I’ll order one for us too,” Sawyer said to his brother.

---