Page 34 of A Billion Dollar Romance
She caught my eye, and smiled.
* * *
“Right through here,” I said. Edie’s hand was warm in mine as I led her off of the main room and through to a smaller room off the atrium. Where the main space was all soaring ceilings and glass, this one was cozy. Tall bookshelves filled with leatherbound volumes lined the walls. I knew from prior experience at events here–and prior escapes, usually accompanying Ryan, when Maddie was younger and prone to crying when kept up past her bedtime–that the books themselves were dull, mostly legal encyclopedias, but the effect was nice. This building wasn’t used as a library any more, but this room, at least, still smelled like books, and not cologne and hors d’oeuvres.
“Is this where you take all yourfiancées?” she asked. Her voice was light, but her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.
I turned to face her. She looked studiously away, her eyes roving the bookshelves.
“Did someone say something to you? I’m sorry, Edie–”
“No, no one said anythingtome,” she said. “They’re all talkingaboutme, though.”
I sighed.
“What happened?” she asked. She didn’t look angry, merely curious. I felt my stomach tighten. Did Iwanther to be angry? No, but…Jealous, maybe?
“I kissed someone I shouldn’t have. That’s all.”
“And Barrett?”
“He defended me, when… when her fiancé found us. Punched the guy.”
Her eyebrows raised. “He’s a good friend,” she said finally, shocking a laugh from me.
“He is,” I said, chuckling. “He is,” I said again. I sat on one of the leather couches, feeling the old, saggy cushions sink under my weight. “I was going through a bad time. It was my first event after…” How much did she need to know? She wasn’t, I reminded myself, my real fiancée, but for some reason, I wanted–needed–to explain myself. “My grandfather had just died. I was at the cabin–”
“In Maine,” she said. The one I’d promised her, at the end of all this.
“The very one,” I said, smiling softly. “I got the call to come back to the city; that Verity was mine. I never wanted the business,” I explained. “But I couldn’t very well sell it. He built that company, he gave me everything I have. So I came back. But… I didn’t want to be a businessman. I’m a writer. You know what that’s like.”
I closed my eyes as Edie walked the perimeter of the room, looking at the gilt titles printed on the spines of the books.
“Mmm,” she said. “So you got too drunk at a fundraiser, and kissed someone you shouldn’t have.”
“That’s about it,” I said. “I’m sorry. I should have told you.”
“And you wonder why they want you to work on your image,” she said, but there was unexpected warmth in her voice. I cracked open my eyes to see her pulling a book from the shelf, flipping through the pages, putting it back.
“That’s what Charlie said, too,” I admitted.
“And?” Edie said, looking from the books to me. “What about this year?”
“This year is different,” I said.
“Is it?” she asked, and something in the way she stood, half-leaning against the bookshelf, the expression she wore on her pretty, youthful face, had my pulse quickening. “You won’t be kissing anyone you shouldn’t?” she asked.
No.
Dared.
I stood, taking one step toward her, then another. She stared back at me, a smile curving her pink lips.
“Yes,” I said, huskily. “This year, the only fiancée I’ll be kissing is my own.”
I closed the distance between us in a rush, pinning her against the bookshelf with enough force that I heard the small, triumphant “ha” of breath escape from between her lips before I swallowed it, pressing my lips to hers. She smelled like orange blossoms and tasted like champagne and as her arms came up around my neck, she felt like heaven. I sucked her lower lip between my own, nibbling it gently, and was rewarded with a soft moan.
“Edie,” I groaned, her hands coming up to tangle in my hair. I let my own slip down to her waist, then her hips, holding her tightly, pulling her body against mine so that she arched off the bookshelf. She’d be able to feel my cock through my tux pants, through that thin, slippery dress she wore, and I urged her closer, slotting my thigh between her legs and smoothing my hands over her ass, round and plump and begging to be squeezed.
