Read Online KISS AND MAKE-UP by Leslie Kelly - Free Book Online Page A

her that.
    “Is that the truth?” she asked, her tone light.
    “What do you want from me, Cassie?”
    She laughed softly, a sultry sound that rolled over him the same way her subtle scent was flowing over his whole body. “I thought I wanted closure. To see you again and see that the past is over and that I can go on with my life.”
    God, it felt like she’d put a knife in him, even though he’d been telling himself exactly the same thing. It was over. He’d known that for eight years. So why in hell did it wound him to hear the words coming off her gorgeous lips?
    She swallowed, her hand tightening almost reflexively on his leg, until he had to close his eyes in self-protection. “But I don’t know, Wyatt. I’m here now and I see you and all I can think about is the way you tasted like rum punch the first time you kissed me at that beach party.”
    Groaning, he gave himself over to the memory. That night, the flicker of the bonfire had turned Cassie’s hair into a long, living flame and had made her sapphire eyes glow. He’d just met her that day, but he’d already known he was experiencing his first real adult desire. Not young guy lust, but true, genuine desire to explore every erotic, sensual delight with a woman…and wake up with her the next morning.
    He leaned forward a bit. “You tasted like cotton candy.”
    She licked her lips. “And the Celine Dion song from Titanic was playing on Joy Miller’s boom box. She loved that soundtrack.”
    He laughed softly, leaning in a little more. A little closer to her scent. A little closer to her smile. A little closer to madness. “I hated that movie.”
    “I know you did.” She shifted in her seat, until their thighs brushed together. “I loved it.”
    He watched the way her soft, moist lips parted with her exhalations. “I know you did.”
    Then there was no more conversation; there were no more words or platitudes or excuses. They simply came together, cheeks brushing, then lips meeting in a sweet, languorous kiss of reunion and apology. Admission and anticipation.
    Wyatt gave himself one second to regret it, then a full minute to savor it. Tasting her mouth and sharing her breaths, he slipped his tongue between her lips to tangle with hers in a lazy exploration. No tension, no frenzy, no desperation like there had been yesterday in the gym, when the passion had overwhelmed them both. This was just a lazy greeting, a hello after a long time apart. He was saying I missed you. I want you.
    It was like coming home.
    “Ahem.”
    The waitress’s presence beside their table was enough to shock them both to the present. Almost stunned at how overwhelming it had been to kiss Cassie again, Wyatt pulled back and drew in a deep breath. He shifted away. Space was necessary for propriety. And for sanity.
    Once they were alone again, they each sipped deeply from their glasses, though, of course, alcohol would do nothing to cool either of them down. And they both knew it.
    But he needed to stop this in its tracks. In the calm aftermath of a wildly unexpected kiss, Wyatt acknowledged the mistake he’d just made. He’d kissed her, again, and reopened the floodgates. He’d let her start crawling back inside him, allowed her to dig into his heart by way of his libido, a mistake of monumental proportions, and exactly the opposite of what he’d come here tonight to do.
    It was a mistake he needed to correct immediately. So, forcing himself to remain calm and aloof, he leaned back in his seat and eyed her impassively. “Aren’t you worried about things going wrong with your business while you’re gone?”
    He couldn’t believe how normal he sounded. How calm. How focused. Especially when every brain cell he had was telling him to breathe deeper of her scent, to lose himself in her eyes. And reminding him that Cassie had a bed somewhere very close by.
    “I’m not as worried about the business as I am about things continuing to go wrong in my life.”
    Her words were