“You love that prick?”
“No.” I answer honestly.
He stares at me for a beat, mischief blazing from his eyes. “Wave.”
Do what? But before I can ask, his palm slaps the restaurant window. Everyone inside turns to look toward us. My stranger flashes a devilish grin at Jason, and then with both hands, he cups my face and crashes his mouth onto mine. I gasp, my lips parting, and he uses it to his advantage, slipping his tongue in. A scorching heat engulfs me like I’ve grabbed ahold of an electric fence. Streaks of pleasure burn through me as electricity buzzes over my skin and zips down my spine. This type of kiss owns your soul and curls your toes. Makes you drunk and an instant addict. My fingers tighten around each of his wrists on the side of my face as the world disappears around us. Somewhere in the back of my mind I know I shouldn’t be doing this. I feel ashamed and embarrassed, turned on and intoxicated.
A deep groan that sounds tortured comes from the back of his throat and he pulls away. My eyes flutter open, high off the hit of him. My body wobbles. Desire and lust heat his eyes like he experienced the same thing I did, and a stunned smirk laces his lips as they curl up.
With my cheeks still in his palms, he rips his gaze away from me and gives Jason a tip of his chin. It’s a complete alpha move. Shaking the thought, I glance to Jason. His expression is murderous as he stands and pulls out his wallet. His date looks perplexed and scrambles for answers. It only solidifies my suspicions. She knows nothing about me…
My kidnapper hero grabs my hand and rushes me away, weaving us through a congested part of the sidewalk and across the next pedestrian walk. This time the sign did say it was safe to go.
I’m nearly in a jog trying to keep up, my feet screaming in agony. “Will you slow down?”
He doesn’t. Anger begins to sprout, dousing my high from the kiss and reminding me what we did. What he did. I may have enjoyed it, but that’s no excuse.
Abruptly, I stop and jerk my hand from his. He skids, almost stumbles to a stop, and then faces me.
“Why the hell did you kiss me?” I seethe.
“To show him you saw and you’re over it.”
“I am not a cheater,” I fume. “Now he’s going to think I was fooling around too and had to one up him.”
“Who the fuck cares what he thinks?” His words are dispassionate, and it grates my spine. “You didn’t cheat on him. He cheated on you. You witnessed it and were done. He’s the one who didn’t give a shit in the first place.”
The story of my life.
“That doesn’t give you permission to kiss me,” I argue.
“Sure it does. I wanted to and saw an opportunity, so I took it.” I’m surprised at his nonchalance.
“That’s like…like mouth rape. Do you walk around kissing strangers all the time?” Realization hits me and I slap my fingers to my lips that still tingle. “Oh, my god. Please tell me you don’t have any mouth diseases.”
His laugh is deep and sexy, and it flutters through my body, settling somewhere deep in my stomach. “No. You’re my first stranger street kiss.”
Closing my eyes, I massage my temples. I don’t even know him and he had no hesitancy in putting his mouth on me and kissing me into oblivion. In front of my boyfriend, who I haven’t broken up with yet. “I don’t want to think about this.” I let my hands fall to my sides, suddenly feeling disgusted with myself because a) I liked it, and b) because I’m officially a cheater now. “I need to go back to work.”
I stride away without another word. What the hell would I even say?
“Hey! What’s your name?”
Now he thinks about that.
I don’t answer. I don’t turn around to show him the tears threatening my eyes. I don’t even acknowledge I heard him. Instead, I keep planting one foot in front of the other to put as much distance as possible between the things he made me feel and the emotions I saw in his eyes. All the things I shouldn’t have liked.
Lucia’s head pops up when I drop back to my desk.
“I saw him,” I whisper so my coworkers won’t overhear my private life.
Although our office is large, fit with an enormous communal table for large projects and several medium-sized ones, our desks are close together on the back wall.
“I’m so sorry.” The despair in her deep, caring brown eyes is evident. “You don’t need that asshole in your life. He’s done nothing but lie and keep you upset. He’s not worth it.”
“I know.” And it’s the truth. We hadn’t even been together for a month when the first wave of infidelity rumors came crashing around me. As I close my eyes and rub my temples, flashes of the last hour unfold. Anger. Fear from thinking I was being kidnapped to almost being hit by a car. Betrayal from seeing my cheating asshole of a boyfriend. Then blue-silver eyes and perfect lips. I was kissed and it set off fireworks inside of me.
Everything crashes through me and I can’t fight the giggle that rises from me. Lucia looks at me like I’ve lost my mind, and quite possibly she’s right. “A sexy stranger kissed me in front of Jason.”
Her eyes flash wide.
“Striking silver-blue eyes and hot. So hot and a bad boy vibe. He had tattoos up both arms,” I tack on because being hot with tattoos is every woman’s Achilles heel.
She scoots her chair closer to me. “I need details. All of them. How did this happen?”
I shake my head in disbelief. “I was raging mad and so distracted that I stepped out in the middle of the street thinking it was a crosswalk. He pulled me back to safety and I guess he followed me. He saw Jason and the woman too. I don’t know how long we stood there, but he ended up slapping the window to get Jason’s attention, and everyone else’s,” I mutter embarrassed, “and then kissed me.”
Lucia’s smiling mouth falls open.
“It was the kiss of all kisses,” I whisper, feeling the heat of it again. “He said he saw the opportunity and took it.”
“Oh my god. I like this guy already. Please tell me there’s a date planned.”
I scrunch my nose and shake my head. “No. You know the wild and reckless bad boy type isn’t my thing. Besides, he kissed a stranger for crying out loud. It was just as vile as it was amazing.”
My phone pings and my pulse spikes again.
Jason: Nice stunt. You go around kissing substandard men a lot?
Me: Apparently I have for the past 6 months.
I ignore his dig and take my own. Almost instantly, his name lights up the display. Groaning, I roll my eyes to Lucia and answer it as I step back out of the office and into the stairwell directly outside.
“Kissing a substandard man for six months, huh?” he spits.
“Who was she?”
“A client,” he fires back.
I scoff. “You expect me to believe that?”
Exasperated, he sighs and I can see him stretching his neck like he normally does when he’s stressed. “Nothing happened, Kenlyn.” He sounds calmer, gentler.
“I’m assuming you have no idea how long I stood there and watched?”
“You’ve been looking for ways to pin shit on me since the whole Layla incident. Quite frankly, I’m getting tired of having to prove myself.” There goes his calm.