“Shh.” She brought her finger to her lips, the side of her mouth curving up. “Don’t blow my cover.”
“Your cover?” I scoffed. “Sorry, Batman.”
“It’s nice to know you too.” When Olivia smiled,reallysmiled without appearing to have some kind of nefarious agenda, she was stunning. Her dark eyes twinkled at me, stealing a little air from my lungs. “Other than being a grumpy baker with a baseball fixation.”
“You’ve seen me in situations that make me grumpy. That doesn’t mean I’m grumpy by nature.”
“Every time I’ve seen you, you’ve been grumpy. But”—she paused with a slow nod— “that was probably because of me.”
“Not always. When you saw me last it was mostly my family and the news that the only cousin I like was going to be related to my ex. You didn’t help, no.” Another smile pulled at my lips. “But I don’t think I’ve been grumpy since we sat down, have I?”
“No, you haven’t.” She looked away for a moment before she returned my wide grin.
“Did you get the money shot?” I nodded at her empty plate. I’d tried not to stare when she made such a big effort to position her phone perfectly earlier. I usually rolled my eyes when I noticed someone do that before they ate, but Olivia had an actual purpose other than documenting every second of her life on social media.
“I did. That was a pretty damn good burger. They should get some awesome traffic after my post tomorrow.”
“I’m sure they will, your highness.”
“Now, if you had just started calling me that all along, we would have been friends a long time ago.” She smirked at me, her red lipstick faded but still beckoning my eyes to her mouth.
Olivia paid the bill, then I followed her out to the parking lot.
“I have to be at the venue early to drop the cake off. Can you be ready by four?” I asked as I walked with her to her car. The parking lot was packed compared to how empty it had been when we’d arrived.
“That’s not a problem.” She tossed her purse onto the passenger seat and turned back to me. “What color is your suit?”
“What is this, prom?” I scoffed. “It’s black.”
“Good. My dress is red, so we won’t clash.”
My brows shot up. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?” I sighed, trying to ignore the possible images parading through my brain of her body covered in what I was sure would be a tight red dress. She’d turn every head in the place—most of all mine.
“Well, that’s kind of the point of this endeavor, right?” She shrugged. “Tyler showing up to a family wedding with the girl he always hated. People eat up a good enemies-to-lovers tale. If we do it right.” She shut the door behind her and crossed her arms, squinting at me as she leaned back against her car. She looked like she was about to issue a challenge.
“I guess. Good point. Thank you for dinner.” I shifted toward my truck. “This wasn’t so terrible.”
“‘Wasn’t so terrible’?” She held her torso as she burst out laughing. “Your game isstellar, Bennett.”
“My game is on a long hiatus, and I don’t think game is necessary for what we’re doing. Good night,” I said before she grabbed my arm.
“I have an idea. This was good practice for friendly conversation, but if we kiss for the first time in front of everyone, it’s going to look forced, no?”
“I still don’t see why we’d have to, but probably if we did, it would look awkward as fuck.”
“Well, why don’t we get it out of the way now?”
My brows jumped. This woman was full of surprises.
“You want to kiss? Now? In a parking lot?”
“No one is really out here, and if we fumble now it’s not like anyone will notice or care. Come on,” she purred, inching closer to me. My eyes fell to her mouth as it curved into a slow, wicked grin. “You know what they say about that line between love and hate.”
“What’s that?” I rasped, my mouth dry and my palms damp like I was a thirty-five-year-old teenager. She got a rise out of me in more ways than one when we were young, but I could never see past the lifelong animosity. Tonight, we’d managed to take that out of the equation, and nothing was stopping me from tasting the lips I’d wanted for longer than I cared to remember.
“It’s thin.Reallythin,” she whispered, sliding her hand to the back of my neck and pulling my mouth toward hers. She brushed my lips with a feather-light kiss and leaned in for another when I didn’t pull away. Her mouth was warm, her lips pillow-soft. If we were on a bad-decision streak anyway, I wasn’t settling for a cheap little kiss after all this time.
I speared a hand into her hair and hauled her to me, gliding my tongue along her bottom lip until she opened her mouth on a surprised moan. Her arms looped around my neck as I pulled her closer, her full breasts pressing against me as the kiss went from tentative to desperate. I licked inside her mouth with long strokes, drinking it all in to quench the thirst I’d never wanted to acknowledge.
