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When I forced myself to end the kiss, my breathing was uneven. My heart was pounding. My lips tingled.

And Damon stared down at me. Not smiling. Not teasing. Just watching me with an intensity that made my knees feel suspiciously unreliable.

I swallowed.

“Okay,” I said, my voice embarrassingly breathless. “I think we got it. No need to get carried away.”

His gaze dropped to my mouth. Then returned to my eyes. “I'm exactly where I want to be.”

Oh boy. No, that was not fair. Not even a little.

“This is fake,” I reminded him. Unfortunately, my voice came out about as convincing as a toddler denying they'd eaten the cookies while covered in chocolate.

A slow smile spread across Damon's face. The kind of smile that had probably gotten him out of trouble and into sin.

“Are you reminding me,” he asked softly, “or yourself?”

I rolled my eyes. Because it was easier than admitting the truth.

I was reminding myself. And the worst part? I wasn't sure I believed me anymore.

14

A SIDE OF HOMICIDAL JEALOUSY

Damon

Iwas a dead man.

Not in the literal sense. Although, if Mikayla Parsons ever figured out just how badly I wanted to kiss her again, my life expectancy might take a significant hit.

No, I was dead in the sense that one kiss had managed to completely rearrange my internal organs.

I'd kissed plenty of women. More than my fair share, if you believed the rumors. And in a small town like Valentine Bay, people tended to believe the rumors. Especially the ones they started.

But I'd never kissed anyone like Mikayla.

I'd never had a kiss make me forget where I was, what I was doing, or why I'd thought pretending to date the woman I'd been interested in since the day we'd met was a good idea.

Because it wasn't. It was a spectacularly bad idea. The kind that deserved its own warning label.

And yet, as we walked toward the pier, her hand tucked into mine, I couldn't stop smiling. She'd kissed me back. Not a polite little peck for the camera. Not some stiff, awkward performance for the scavenger hunt.

She'd kissed me like she meant it. Like she wanted me. And when she'd pulled away, she'd looked as stunned as I felt.

Of course, she'd immediately reminded me that our relationship was fake. Which was becoming her favorite pastime. Some people collected stamps. Mikayla collected reasons we couldn't be together.

I planned on making her run out.

Eventually.

I wasn't stupid enough to rush her.

But I wasn't about to pretend that kiss hadn't happened, either. Especially since I could still taste her.

The Valentine Bay pier was lit up like a Christmas tree. Strings of white lights hung between lampposts, music drifted from the boardwalk speakers, and the smell of saltwater mixed with popcorn, fried dough, and something that smelled suspiciously like heaven.

The ferris wheel turned slowly against the darkening sky, its colorful lights reflecting off the ocean. Families wandered between carnival games. Couples strolled hand in hand. Kids ran around with enough sugar in their systems to power a small city.