Page 43 of Air Of Mystery
“And the orange roses?” he asked.
“Orange roses signify energy and desire,” I said, and it was everything I had to keep my voice steady.
“Desire, eh?” His lips quirked.
“Yes.” My voice had dropped to a husky whisper. “Desire.”
“Well, I have to admit,” he said, leaning forward, “they’re really working.”
He moved in slowly. Slowly enough that I could have easily dodged him if I wished, but I didn’t. I stayed where I was and lifted my mouth to his, meeting him halfway.
His lips captured mine and my brain fizzled out. I stopped thinking, and instead it was all about feeling. He nipped slightly at my bottom lip, and my heart leapt against my ribs. When he brushed his tongue against my mouth I opened for him and then he swooped in for a deeper kiss.
I reached for his waist to anchor myself as our kiss continued. The scent of the roses from the arrangement that he still held only added to the romance of the moment. Eventually, he eased back, and we stood staring at one another.
Belatedly, I realized that I still had my hands on him, while he’d kept his hands off me while we kissed, and for some reason, that only made it hotter.
“Skye?” His voice was low.
I lifted my hands from his waist. “I’ll be honest with you Charlie,” I said. “I still wonder what it would have been like between us that night if we hadn’t been derailed by rescuing Kenna and Tyler.”
“So do I,” he said. “I think about that a lot.”
“I regret very few decisions that I’ve ever made, but tossing down that glamour and disappearing on you while we argued? That’s one of them.”
Charlie set the arrangement aside. “What time do you expect the bridal shower to be over?”
“We have to be out by six,” I told him. “The staff have to flip the room for a wedding tomorrow.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “Afterward, come over to the carriage house and we can talk more.”
“Talk?”
“We can start there,” he said, his voice and eyes steady. “And we’ll see where we end up.”
“We’ll see where we end up,” I agreed and turned blindly toward the box and grabbed two more centerpieces.
“You’re not nervous to be alone with me, are you?” he asked.
“No,” I said, although I was. Walking away to place the arrangements, I glanced at him from over one shoulder. “But inall honesty, Charlie, if you ever kiss me like that again...we had better be alone.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You definitely should,” I told him.
I went back to the boxes of flowers and reached for more, but before I could take ahold of them Charlie reached out and cupped one side of my face. “See you later, then.”
I stayed still, waiting to see what he would do, but he didn’t try and kiss me again. Instead, he trailed his fingertips delicately over my jaw as he released me. He stepped back, gave me an easy smile, and left.
“Holy shit,” I whispered to myself once he was out of earshot.
I continued to watch him until he traveled down the hall and out of my sight. I was shaking and wasn’t sure if that was down to him, or if it was from all the held back desire we had for one another.
Blowing out a calming breath, I shook myself off and dove back into setting up the rest of the decorations for my sister’s bridal shower.
***
“That wasawesome,” my cousin Soleil said to me a few hours later.
