“We’re gonna wake Zoey!”
“Promise me you won’t go.”
She squirmed, breathless, batting his hands away even as he did the same. All the while laughing so hard she felt giddy.
He hit his target, making her squeal. “Promise, and I’ll stop.”
“All right, all right, I promise. Jeez.”
Instantly his hands paused. His eyes narrowed with suspicion as their breaths clashed in the space between them.
She was about to reissue her promise when something shifted almost imperceptibly in his eyes. His smile wilted slowly as his eyes fastened on hers.
He was inches away and suddenly the mingling of their breaths seemed very intimate. The way he stared at her even more so. Her eyes locked on his as if held by some imaginary force. The air crackled between them. Her heart threatened to burst from her chest.
His gaze lowered to her mouth, making her lips tingle. He closed the gap between them slowly, eyes seeking permission.
Please, please, pleasewas all she could think before her lids fluttered shut and her lips welcomed his. The soft brush of his kiss set off an earthquake inside her. All focused on the epicenter of their lips. Moving in a way that gave rise to a tidal wave of sensations. The gentle sweep of his touch. The sweet taste of his mouth. The low hum of her skin.
His fingers slid into her hair as his lips wreaked havoc on hers.
Feelings of affection bubbled to the surface. She palmed his neck and felt the racing thrum of his pulse. Even as want coursed through her veins, unwelcome thoughts surged to the surface.
This was Josh. Her brother-in-law.
He waskissingher.
She waskissinghim!
As if reading her mind he eased back, only inches away. Their eyes locked, ragged breaths tangling in the space between them. The dimness hid his thoughts from her.
What had just happened?
Coolness rushed over her skin as he eased off her, moving to the far side of the love seat. Numb, she sat up and rested against the sofa’s arm. How had that happened? One minute they were laughing and being their usual platonic selves, and the next...
Josh had been so sad lately. He’d just come through a traumatic divorce. It was normal to seek relief from that kind of heartache.
What washerexcuse?
Josh cleared his throat, a crack of gunfire in the unsettling quiet. “We should, ah, probably talk about that.”
The low scrape of his voice made something flutter in her belly. She met his gaze across the length of the sofa. At once sorry and relieved he was so far away. What was wrong with her?
“It’s okay,” she said. “I understand. You’ve been sad a long time,and this is your first Christmas without her. You’re lonely. It’s completely natural you’d want to feel something else—anything else.”
Josh stared at the Christmas tree as if mesmerized by the sight.
The warm, sweet memory of that kiss played back in her head. But she couldn’t let her thoughts go there. The reasons for it were too confusing, too awful to contemplate. “And I—I miss Ethan.”
She’d just used Ethan’s death to justify a kiss with his brother. At the realization, her hands flash froze to blocks of ice. What kind of person did that? The fairy lights took on a halo as tears filled her eyes.
***
Maggie’s last words sliced through Josh like a razor blade. All these years of self-control and he’d lost it over a tickle match. How many times had he imagined what kissing Maggie might feel like? That’s what he got for entertaining the thought.
Maggie wasn’t ready to move on. He’d known that.
But he hadn’t imagined that come-hither look in her eyes, had he? Hadn’t imagined the way her lips responded so readily to his. The way she’d rested her warm hand against his neck as if she wanted to jump right inside him.
