Page 68 of The Duke Who Saved Christmas
Sylvie paused and looked at her little Audi. It was almost entirely buried in snow at this point, and I had no idea how long she was staying.
She might not have a say in it.
If the weather kept this up, her car was stuck there until March at least.
“That’s a fair point,” she said, bobbing her head as she looked at her car. She paused for just a moment then turned back to me, closing the distance between us.
I raised my eyebrows when she stopped right in front of the car and bent down, gripping the edge of the window. She ran her lower lip between her teeth and slowly brought her pretty blue gaze up to meet mine, and there was almost a hesitance in it that gave way to a shyness that I wasn’t used to seeing on Sylvie.
“Thank you,” she said after a moment, dipping her head. “For this evening. I don’t know how you ended up at the pub, but I really did need someone to talk to.”
“I was delivering Christmas trees.” I laughed quietly, holding her gaze. “But you’re welcome. I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
She smiled, and her face lit up like she was a whole Christmas light display. It warmed my grinchy little heart for ahot flash of a second, and I beat away the rush of temptation to act on my attraction to her.
She’d been drinking.
That alone was reason enough not to act on it.
Yes, she’d eaten.
Yes, she had full control of herself.
But she’d been drinking.
I couldn’t say one hundred percent if totally sober Sylvie would consent to me kissing her, so I wasn’t going to do it.
Because by God, if I ever kissed this woman, she was going to be completely on board with it. She was going to consent to it, she was going to want it, and she was going to fucking like it.
“I am feeling better,” Sylvie said with a smile as soft as her voice. “I really needed to let it out, and I guess I also really needed to eat, so thank you for buying me dinner. And not letting me fall on my arse in the road. The last thing I need is a sprained ankle.”
“It was my pleasure.”
She leant forwards right as I turned my head to look over her shoulder, and her lips brushed against mine.
We both stilled, and every thought I’d had a mere thirty seconds ago rushed out of my mind at the sweet feeling of her mouth pressing against my own.
I barely had time to register the fact that my head turn had ruined her attempt at kissing me on the cheek before she gasped and leant back, still gripping onto the car door.
“Oh, my God,” she breathed, her eyes widening. “That didn’t happen. Pretend that didn’t happen.”
“It happened,” I replied, holding her gaze. “You know it happened.”
“That didn’t happen,” she repeated, her voice low. “Oh, my fucking God. Never bring that up.”
“I’m bringing it up.”
“No, you aren’t.” She slapped her hands against the car door and took a step backwards. “That was amistake,and we are never talking about it again!”
I raised my eyebrows. “You’re the one who went in for it, Sylvie. Sure, you meant my cheek, but even that’s out of character. We are definitely talking about this.”
“No, we are not!” She stopped, raised her hand, then shook her fist. Presumably for lack of a better thing to do. “Oh, piss off, Thomas!”
I couldn’t help it.
I laughed, dropping my head back on the headrest. That only pissed her off more, and she stomped to the front door, slipping no less than three times, and I watched as it took her four attempts to get her key in the door.
Granted, it was because she kept shooting me dark looks and missed the lock three times because she wasn’t paying attention rather than the fact she’d had a couple of drinks, but that just added to my amusement of the whole situation.
