Page 25 of Abduction
“You don’t have to say anything,” he murmured, and he reached up to tuck a hand behind my neck, pulling me closer. I could hear the blood rushing in my veins, my brain screaming at me to stop but my body telling me to keep going, to let this happen.
I felt my eyes softening as I allowed him to pull me closer. Oh, I needed to stop this, I needed to pull away, I needed this to end, but if I didn’t get to kiss him right now, I felt as though I would lose my mind...
But in the instant before our lips connected, a chaotic mess of voices cut through the silence around us, and I sprang away from him so fast I nearly crashed in to the far side of the aquarium. I pulled my hand out of his, my heart thumping painfully in my chest, and turned to see who had interrupted us. I was both glad they had and wishing they had given me just a moment longer so I could find out what it felt like to kiss this guy for real.
It was a group stack of kids, led by one tired-looking teacher, all peering around at the tank as they talked over each other. I couldn’t even look at Josh. How could I have let it go so far? I should have known better.
But even as I stood there and tried to pull myself back together, I still found myself longing for the taste of his lips. And wondering just how far I would have gone, had the two of us not been interrupted.
Chapter Fourteen
Amber
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AS WE MADE OUR WAYout of the aquarium, my head was swimming.
I couldn’t believe I had nearly kissed him. I couldn’t believe I had let him hold my hand. I was still trying to work out what I should do now, if I should sprint to a water taxi and get as far from there as I could, or if I wanted this day to go on a little longer.
I didn’t want to keep him from...well, whatever it was he was supposed to be doing. I hadn’t asked him about his job, but I figured he must have one. Right? Or maybe he was one of those rich trust-fund kids who got everything they wanted on a platter.
He didn’t strike me as the type, and I had come across plenty of them in my time studying law. He had a different kind of confidence, as though he knew just what he deserved and wasn’t afraid to take it. I enjoyed it about him, even though I knew I shouldn’t have.
But it was more than just his confidence that drew me in. No, it was how attentive and focused he seemed on me. He wanted to hear what I was into, he wanted to listen to my interests, and I liked it. Aaron—well, Aaron had a habit of brushing me off so he could talk about what he wanted to talk about. It never felt as though he was really doing what he could to take care of my needs, more that he was listening to me talk until he got his chance to come out with what he wanted to say.
Or maybe I was just trying to find some way to justify what had happened in there to myself. I didn’t want to admit how good it had felt, how much I wished for more.
I wasn’t going to blow up my relationship over someone I had just met, was I? I needed to pull myself together. I still didn’t even know if Aaron was cheating on me, but I would give him the excuse he needed if he discovered I had spent the day with Josh. Even if I had tried to pass it off as just friendly, he wasn’t stupid, he would see through it, no matter how much I tried to cover my ass.
“What are you doing now?” Josh asked casually, as though the two of us were just on any normal date. Maybe, to him, we were, but I was engaged to someone else, and I knew I should have been getting back home already. I felt like Cinderella; I had already stayed out too late, and the thought of being caught in this mess was enough to make me come out in hives from the stress.
“I’m—I should be getting home,” I told him, hardly able to make eye contact. I felt like if I did, I might just lunge at him and kiss him right then and there, and I needed to control myself. I needed to do better. I was the one in a relationship, not him, I was the one who owed the loyalty to her other half. Maybe this was something he made sport out of, finding women who were already involved with other men and making them bend to his will. I had no idea.
No idea about anything, apart from how much I liked being around him.
“Got to get back to your fiancé?” he asked, the flicker of a cocky smile passing across his face. I nodded.
