Page 32 of Kisses Sweeter than Wine

“Kisses sweeter than wine,” she whispered. The phrase tumbled from her lips. She wished she could take the words back, but it was too late. The damage was done and there was no turning back now.

He stared at her with his mouth open and questioning eyes.

The spark of recognition was written all over his face.

He’d uttered those exact words after their very first kiss and the first time they’d made love. It had all been so magical. Like it had been a fairy tale. If she didn’t have Corbin, it could have all been a fantasy.

But it had been real.

She wanted to run and hide, but her body froze.

“How did you know to say that to me?” He dropped his hand and narrowed his stare. A look of anger and confusion filled his deep soulful eyes. “Where do you know it from?”

“Isn’t a song or something?” she said with a quiver in her voice.

“Those words mean something deeply personal to me and you couldn’t have randomly picked them out of a hat. How do you know them? Tell me.” His gaze bored right through her like a spotlight shining on all her lies. “Don’t lie to me.”

Tears burned her cheeks. She couldn’t stand it a second longer. She needed to get the truth out or it would eat her alive. “You said it to me under the bleachers at school,” she choked out. “And then again right here after you made love to me for the first time.”

He took a giant step back. “How is it you? How is this possible? And why the hell have you been lying to me this entire time?”

6

MERLOT

Merlot stared at Talbot. His heart had known who she was all along, but his mind couldn’t accept it.

He’d mourned her for years. He’d done his best to move on from her death.

And there she stood in the very cottage where they’d fallen madly in love.

That love had never died. He had carried it around like a badge of honor on his chest for the world to see. It had hindered his ability to find love again. To live a full life.

He couldn’t blame her for that.

She swiped her hands across her face. “I never wanted to lie to you.”

Merlot ran a hand across the top of his head. “You died. I was at your funeral. And now you’re here, pretending to be someone else and fucking with my head.”

“That is not what I’m doing.” She inched closer.

He moved further away, hitting his back against the far wall. His mind went back to the morning his father woke him and told him about the fire and how Daisy and her mother had died. It had destroyed him emotionally and mentally. He’d been a broken man for years. In some ways he still was. “Are you kidding me? I told you about someone I lost. You knew who I was talking about, yet you continued with the charade.”

“Charade? This is my life.” She pounded her chest. “I died because my mom had to get away from my father. Leaving him wasn’t the answer. She tried that and what did it get her? Or me for that matter. We were trapped. The only solution she saw was planning our deaths, but I had no choice. Whether I wanted to or not, I had to go along with it. But let’s imagine for one second what would have happened to me if I had stayed.”

Merlot couldn’t argue with her logic when it came to the past. Her father was a wicked man who had done horrible things.

And not just to her and her mother.

When he worked for the city council, he'd robbed the town, and Merlot’s dad tried to run Richard out of Candlewood Falls. His dad continued to fight Richard long after Daisy had died. His father couldn’t stand the level of corruption and would always fight.

But each time he lost and Richard came out on top.

It had defeated his father in ways Merlot had never seen.

“If you did not intend to tell me the truth of your identity, why come back here?” Merlot needed a fucking drink, and not a glass of sweet wine either. He needed something stiff and strong. He went to the liquor cabinet and pulled out a bottle of tequila. He took out a short glass, filled it with ice, and poured it to the rim. “Please make me understand.”

“As long as my father is alive, I can’t ever be the person I used to be.” Talbot had the nerve to kick off her heels and make herself comfortable on his sofa. She tucked her feet under her butt, smoothing her dress over her long, toned legs.

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