“No,” I admitted on a sigh and kicked my feet up on the table, resting my cheek against the back of the couch as I turned to look at her. “It was just the painting that was in front of me when I decided I’d had enough.”
I’d wanted to get back to her, but I didn’t say that, watching instead as she leaned back, her gaze drifting toward the fire. “Did you at least have fun?”
I shrugged. “I think the artist who’ll have two hundred grand in his pocket on Monday for a painting of a cat riding a unicycle probably had more fun than I did.”
Another laugh burst out of her, bright and unguarded, and although it wasn’t the first one tonight, it was the one that undid me. Jane had never been this way around me until tonight and I couldn’t get enough.
“Do that again,” I said before I could stop myself.
She glanced at me, clearly confused. “Do what again?”
“Smile like that again.”
Jane’s breath caught. Her eyes stayed on mine like she wasn’t sure if I was being serious. I held her gaze, so fucking tempted to just lean in, but I didn’t. A few quiet beats passed with us staring at each other just like that, but when she tugged her lower lip into her mouth, drawing my attention to it, I suddenly realized I needed to break whatever had just settled between us before it calcified into something neither of us knew how to name.
“Another drink?” I asked, already standing.
Jane blinked, then nodded. “Sure.”
She rose with me, following me to the bar. I reached for the bottle, but I didn’t get very far. We stopped at the same time, so close together that I could smell the faint scent of the perfume still clinging to her skin.
I lifted my gaze from our glasses to find her already looking at me. For a second, I honestly thought I might be imagining it, that pull, the slow, inevitable step forward. Like magnets sliding across a table toward each other no matter how much you tried to keep them apart.
“You’re staring,” she said, but she was smiling.
I took a step closer, my feet following that pull like my brain had absolutely no choice in the matter. “Am I?”
She tilted her head. “Are you drunk out of your mind?”
“Not on liquor.” I almost wished I was, though. Because at least then, I would have a reason. An excuse. Something to blame when my thumb lifted on its own and brushed her lower lip.
Just once. One light, teasing touch that made each of our breaths hitch. I didn’t plan to kiss her. I just leaned in and took it.
Our first kiss had been for the wedding, brief and controlled. The second had been for the room full of people watching, a claim laid with intention. This one was just for us.
Her mouth was warm and soft, and when she parted her lips for me, it felt like a decision, not a reflex. I deepened the kiss almost immediately, but without rushing, just learning her the way I’d been wanting to for weeks.
She made a sound low in her throat and it went straight through me. I backed her up without thinking, one step at a time until her shoulders met the wall. Bracing my hands on either side of her head, I didn’t touch her anywhere but our lips that kept crashing together again and again.
“Tell me to stop,” I murmured between kisses, giving her one last out.
She pulled back to look into my eyes, her own dark, focused, and steady. “Kiss me again, Alex.”
I groaned but didn’t hesitate. If she wanted this as much as I did, then we were on. Even if I’d never let it go too far after all that drinking.
CHAPTER 25
JANE
The moment the words left my mouth, Alex stepped into me like the space between us had never been real to begin with. My back hit the wall with a soft, solid thud, the old plaster cool even through my clothes, and then there was nowhere to go.
Not that I wanted to get away. I’d forgotten what this felt like, not kissing but being wanted like this. My body registered it before my brain could catch up, the weight of him, the heat, and the way his presence blocked out everything else like he’d decided the very world could wait.
His hands came up to my face, his palms framing my jaw like he needed the contact to anchor himself. There was no rush in him, but also no more restraint as he kissed me like this was the end of a long road, like he’d been walking toward this exact moment without knowing it, and now that he was here, he refused to waste it.
I gasped into his mouth, my fingers curling into the front of his hoodie. His tongue stroked against mine like I was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted, and unlike that night at the gala, he leaned into it this time instead of pulling away.
It had been so long since I’d really moaned that the sound surprised me when it came out, my body reacting to him withoutmy permission. I’d spent years holding myself together with deadlines and responsibility, convincing myself I didn’t need this kind of human contact because I couldn’t afford it, but I’d been wrong.
