Page 28 of Wilder at Heart
I’m like a teenager. Having expected to get no more than a peck, getting a tint of tongue is like hitting third base when you’ve resigned yourself to above-the-waist action only.
But still. I mentioned I value my crown jewels.
So I murmur against her mouth. ‘This okay?’
She nods. ‘Mmm-hmm.’ Her voice is low. Husky.
Fuck yes.
Nora Wilder is granting me access to that sweet, sharp little mouth of hers. The hand on her waist slides further, pulling her in flush to me as I fist the hair at the back of her neck more firmly and tug her head to one side, opening up her mouth with my tongue. She puts up no resistance. On the contrary, one hand bears down on the back of my neck, tugging our faces closer together, and the other grips my bicep for dear life.
My tongue finds hers, and they tangle. Dance. Explore. She tastes like champagne and heaven, and when I rotate my head, switching up the angle and lightly catching her tongue between my teeth, a low moan from her reverberates through me.
This is great. This is really fucking great.
Like I said, faking this thing with Nora is no hardship at all.
I want to slide my hand down and cup her arse. Hard. I want to back her into the wall. Toy with the zip at the top of her dress.
Fuck. I want to take her home. Continue this in privacy away from the Charles Montagues and Jonathan Holmes of the world. But there’s no way in hell Nora’ll go for that, beyond using me for a lift back to hers, where she’ll shut the door firmly in my face.
So, in an epic and uncharacteristic act of self-preservation, I pull away. I can’t deny I’m a little fucking smug. And when I look down at her, I’m even more smug. And pretty turned on. Her chest is heaving and those big, beautiful eyes are glassy. It looks like I wasn’t the only one who had fun faking it.
I keep my tone casual. ‘Was that all right?’
‘Yeah.’ She wipes her mouth. ‘It was fine.’
‘Fine.’
‘Yeah. Like, good. Fine. Whatever. I’m glad you didn’t kiss me the way you kissed me at uni; then we would have been in trouble.’
Gah! What the hell? I thought that kiss was pretty good. Far more family-friendly than my usual efforts, but there was, you know, heat. Chemistry. But now I’m desperate to remember what she clearly remembers.
She breaks my train of thought. ‘Did he see?’
‘Who?’
‘Jonathan. Did he see us kiss?’
‘Oh.’ Fuck’s sake. ‘I dunno.’ I look over her shoulder and he’s standing stock still. Staring at us. Triumph at getting one over on him trumps my chagrin at herfinecomment. I can’t resist a small smirk. New girlfriend or no new girlfriend, he looks pissed. Off.
‘Oh, yeah. He saw.’
I glance back down at her and she flushes. Something flits across her face. She straightens up, shakes her hair back.
‘Good.’
Contrary to what I thought, it looks like I was the only one who got sucked into that kiss, then.
CHAPTER 11
Nora
The drive back to mine is awkward as hell. Theo’s being really weird—stiff and polite, which is so out of character for him. I’m not sure what’s got into him. It must have been the kiss, because he seemed happy with how the chat with his dad went.
I shouldn’t have let go like that. I flush in the relative darkness of the car as I recall that I even moaned a little. Mortifying. But I was expecting to feel very awkward during the kiss—like it was choreographed and we were acting it out—and I didn’t.
Not at all.
