Page 37 of Dagger’s Shield

“That’s not the threat you think it is,” Dagger joked.

“It’s tradition,” said my mother, winking.

“It is not,” I said. “You invented it this minute.”

“It’s my right as the mother of the bride.”

Dagger turned in his chair and smirked as he waited, enjoying the position he was putting me in far too much.

“Fine,” I muttered, leaning forward and cupping his face with my hands. I angled mine and brought my mouth to his.

Before I could end the chaste kiss, he put his hand on the back of my neck and eased my lips open with his tongue. No one had ever kissed me like he had, and I doubted anyone else ever would.

9

DAGGER

Maëlle’s lips were softer than I’d imagined, but her kiss was no less passionate than what I’d expected. I knew from the day I met her that fire coursed through her veins. Two nights ago, she’d proven me right.

The intensity she brought to her work was in this too. She didn’t hesitate for even a second. As soon as I pushed past her lips, our tongues moved in long, languid strokes. When she angled her head to deepen it, I nearly groaned aloud. If we weren’t still seated in our chairs, I would’ve pressed my erection between her legs so she could feel how much I wanted her.

She broke the connection first, but my eyes remained riveted to hers anyway. My hand still gripped her nape, and I wasn’t ready to let go. Maëlle’s pupils were dilated, and her nipples, hard as pebbles, were visible through her shirt. The final sign, the exaggerated rise and fall of her chest, was proof positive that she was as turned on as I was.

When her cousin cleared his throat, it was as if the spell we’d both been under fell away, jarring us into the present where we were seated at dinner with him and her parents.

“Now, that was a proper kiss,” he said, chuckling.

I didn’t want to tear my gaze from hers, but seeing her cheeks turn the most delicious shade of pink, I forced myself to face the others at the table.

The moment I did, reality dumped over me like a bucket of ice water. What in the bloody hell were we doing? Our first kiss, one that felt as though our lives depended on it, was witnessed by Maëlle’s mother, father, and cousin. No doubt Marthe saw it too.

The tip of Maëlle’s tongue ran over her bottom lip, and all I could think about was pushing away from the table, gathering her in my arms, and fucking her up against the nearest wall. Could I do that without being the man she’d always figured me for?

A shag and a laugh on the way out was how I’d handled my entire adult life, and she’d spent a year telling me she’d never take a man like that seriously.

If I made that kind of move on her, I’d be the same arsehole I’d always been.

Conversations took place around me, but I couldn’t focus on a single word anyone was saying. At one point, my eyes met Chantal’s, and in hers, I saw confusion. Was it apparent to everyone that her daughter and I had just kissed each other for the first time in the most inappropriate setting imaginable?

Maëlle wasn’t faring any better beside me. She answered her mother twice with single words and only ate half of what was on her plate. When she pushed away from the table, and I jumped out of my chair to help with hers, she looked up at me with hooded eyes.

Was I reading her right? From any other woman, that expression would have meant an invitation to her bed. I couldn’t let myself believe that with Maëlle, and I certainly couldn’t act on it.

Neither of us said a word on the way upstairs.

We weren’t yet to her door when she stopped in the corridor. Before I worked out what she intended, she pushed me against the wall, rose onto her toes, grabbed my neck, and leaned up to touch my lips with hers.

God in heaven, I hated what I had to do, but there was no choice. We couldn’t have another night like the one before last until we talked about what it meant.

“No, Maëlle,” I said, gripping her upper arms and moving her away from me.

“Are you honestly telling me you don’t want this?”

“I want it too much. That’s the problem.”

She jerked her arm away and went into the bedroom. The door stayed open behind her, so I followed.

“Maëlle?”