As far as desperation kisses went, this one was pretty good. Mark’s mouth was soft, and his chin was freshly shaven. It took him a second to realize what was happening.
I meant to pull back after the initial lip touch, but then his strong arms encircled my waist, and he tipped my head back to deepen the kiss.
Thiswasn’t supposed to happen!my brain screamed while my inner starved sex goddess did cartwheels.
I moaned slightly against his mouth.
Wait, what, why…what’s happening? You were just supposed to convince him to stay away from your twin, not sleep with him.
I pushed away from Mark. He didn’t jump back, and his hands remained at my waist. A hungry, sexy expression overtook his face as he gazed at me.
“I um—”
Slightly behind and to the left of Mark, my twin sister shot me a death glare.
Mark leaned down to kiss me again, then Memphis Eve threw the glasses to the ground and screamed.
20
Mark
Ijumped away from Brea and turned on my heel to face Memphis Eve. Her chest was heaving as her eyes flitted between me and Brea.
She brushed her hair back. “I’m sorry, Mark. I dropped these champagne glasses. Clumsy me!” She giggled. “I must have had too much to drink.”
I didn’t dare look at Brea. What kind of man was I, kissing another girl while I neglected my date? But the way Brea had melted in my arms—it had been intoxicating. I needed more.
“I—” I straightened my jacket. “I actually need to go home and check on my dog. The neighbors are complaining. Memphis Eve, if you’ll excuse me, please enjoy the rest of the evening. The limo is outside and will take you home whenever you are ready.”
I didn’t trust myself to continue the evening as Memphis Eve’s date, not when every part of me wanted to drag Brea off and continue what she had started.
Brea consumed my thoughts on the way back to my condo. I still thought about her as I nodded along while my crazy neighbor complained about Beowulf, who was howling on the other side of the door.
“Guess I better check on him,” I said, cutting her off and squeezing through the door before the dog could spring out and attack her.
Brea had kissed me.
Why? I’d thought she hated me.
I had always assumed it was a cliché when people talked about someone being mean to someone they actually secretly liked. There couldn’t be truth in it, could there? What was even more disconcerting was that I hadn’t been nice to Brea either. Did that mean I secretly liked her? So secretly, in fact, that even I had no idea I liked her?
I paced around the apartment, Beowulf at my heels. The safe option would be to write off the incident and assume that Brea had been drunk and I had been, well, not drunk but not thinking clearly. I needed to pretend the kiss had never happened. If there hadn’t been a wedding-planning session scheduled for the next day, I might have. However, I would have to be in the same room with her, sit across the table from her, watch her sip that ridiculous coffee of hers, and imagine those lips around my dick…
“All right, time for bed,” I told the dog.
While the puppy immediately went to sleep on my bed, somehow taking up a disproportionate amount of mattress space for his small size, I kept spinning the kiss with Brea around and around in my head.
Not only was I unable to sleep well that night, but the next morning, I also tried and failed to work out because Beowulf wanted me to play fetch with him. I compromised by rolling the ball for him in between reps. My phone dinged as I finished my workout. I was way behind schedule.
Finn:So you and Memphis Eve left early. *lenny face*
Mark:I didn’t leave with her.
Finn:…
Finn:Dude, Wes basically handed you a night of sweet passion on a silver platter. You literally did not have to work for it at all. And no cost to you.
Mark:She seemed like she was just there to take a picture for her Instagram feed.
